Home-field advantage compromised
Stadium changes disadvantage students, shifts the burden of intimidation to team
By Jeffrey Christian
The Collegian
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY Fresno students anticipating another season of intimidating and ridiculing opponents from the student section will need to equip themselves with megaphones if they hope to achieve success this season.
The Western Athletic Conference banned student section seating behind the opposing sideline earlier this year in an attempt to diminish heckling and other forms of verbal abuse from students.
Fresno State students attending home games at Bulldog Stadium are now relegated to sitting in the designated student section behind the goalpost in the south end zone. The old student section is n
ow home to premium seats sold by the Bulldog Foundation to help fund student-athlete scholarships.
Although the new seating arrangement should have a tremendous impact by providing more donations to the scholarship fund, it is the students who unfortunately suffer the most from the move.
The former location of the student section gave students a sense of inclusion and importance during every home game. I’ve witnessed several fans on numerous occasions selflessly put their vocal chords through torture for three or more hours to help the team.
Most fans sitting in that section aren’t your typical lazy apathetic college students; in fact, they do their pre-game homework and studying as well. Some spend hours studying the names on the opposing team’s roster to pick out humorous rhymes and puns, while others memorize dubious and forgettable statistics from previous and noteworthy games.
The new seating arrangement isn’t likely to affect overall student ticket sales or significantly change the outcome of any home games, but the move definitely makes it easier for opponents to keep their poise and focus in tact during road games.
While the conference’s concerns about obscenity and safety for the opposing players are valid, moving the student section is a dramatic overreaction. I agree that safety should be the top priority for all student-athletes and any fan caught throwing objects or threatening an opposing player should immediately be removed and banned from all future Fresno State athletic events.
The new California State University alcohol ban should greatly reduce most of the poor behavior by overzealous and rowdy fans once it is initiated. Most of the concerns that initiated the new WAC policy stem primarily from behavioral problems that are the sole result of alcohol use.
While it is naive to think that there won’t still be a large number of fans who enter the stadium already intoxicated due to tailgating and other activities, the alcohol-free environment inside should allow most to regain their sobriety and eliminate many of the past security problems.
Ultimately, moving the student section to the corner of the end zone and replacing it with expensive box seats eliminates the true essence of having a home-field advantage. Students are only given about 22 home games during their enrollment in the university. They account for the majority of the university body and they deserve to be given the best seats possible.
Fans in the student section have faithfully supported the football program during its successes as well as its defeats. As a fan in attendance, I have seen the student section remain overcrowded and rambunctious during rainstorms and other weather elements that have rendered other parts of the stadium nearly empty.
Hopefully fans will continue to provide great support from the new section behind the goal posts, but the intimidation for opposing teams playing at Bulldog Stadium will now rest squarely on the shoulders of the Fresno State football team itself.
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