Why People Aren't Going to the Gator Bowl
The local NBC station (NBC29) reported last night that a poll on their website asked why people were not going to the Gator Bowl this year. As of right now, here are the results:
The trip is too expensive - 24%
I'm upset about the new Scott Stadium seating policy for next year that requires a donation - 50%
Other reason - 22%
I am going - 4%
I'm going to address these out of order:
I am going
Well, good. This blog post is not about you.
The trip is too expensive.
Fair enough. I certainly can't bring myself to force people to spend money they don't have. I'll admit that its not cheap for me. Dedicated fans will still go (like I am doing) but I can't fault people even a little bit if this is the reason they can't go. This blog post is not about you.
Other reason.
I'm going to assume that for most people this category really means one major thing and then a lot of other things. The major thing being "I have other plans." The bowl game is on New Years. People already had New Years plans. The bowl game is right after Christmas, people already had Christmas plans. The bowl game is right after people just took time off from work, people can't take more time off from work. Those are all valid excuses. Dedicated fans waited to find out their bowl destination before making plans, but I can't fault the people who did not. This blog post is not about you.
I'm upset about the new Scott Stadium seating policy for next year that requires a donation
This blog post is about you.
Fifty percent of the respondents said that this was their reason for not going to the bowl game.
Seriously?
I'm not sure how many people voted in the poll (NBC29 conveniently left that out) but I have to assume based on the percentages that it's at least 100 people. From reading the comments on TheSabre about the seating policy, I'm fairly certain that 50% of the population doesn't understand the seating policy well enough to justify being upset about it.
To start off, the question itself was misleading and likely lead some people to choose that option even though they didn't mean it. 2008 season football tickets at Scott Stadium will NOT require a donation. In fact, VAF's little chart conveniently points out a group for people who are non-donors. Why would they list people who were non-donors if they were ineligible? Non-donors will still get seats. Compare that to other schools (even our agriculturally inclined cousins down the road) where every season ticket holder is required to give a donation. What's the big deal?
I could probably go on about this topic for 20 pages.
The reseating policy makes sense for the University. We haven't reseated the stadium in a LONG time and the current system is unfair to anyone who started giving donations in the last 50 years or so. Which, if you didn't notice, is just about everyone that comes to the games. Currently there are people sitting inside the 40s who have given their $100 donation every year since 1950. That's just grand. It really is. I'm glad we've had their support that long. I wish we had more people like that. But I have donated more money than them in my limited time since graduation. Should those people just be kicked to the curb? Of course not. They should be given the opportunity to keep their seats (the new policy provides for that, more or less) and they should be given the option to continue donating at whatever level they choose (the new policy provides for that) and they should be given the option to continue buying season tickets (the new policy provides for that). Should I be stuck wallowing in the endzone next to the painfully annoying visitors section just because of my age? No, I should be given an opportunity to sit where my donations allow (the new policy provides for this). Where is the problem?
Sure, people who get "screwed" by this policy are going to be mad. Of course they are. That's how it happens. UVA could offer free tickets to the first 65k people that show up - and people would still find a way to complain.
We could argue this all day (I'm sure anyone reading this is arguing with me in their head right now - I seem to be in the minority that is 100% in favor of this new policy).
But my real point here is that this is quite possibly the worst reason I've ever heard of for not going to a bowl game. What does next year's seating policy have to do with cheering on the ACC Coach of the Year. What does next year's seating policy have to do with being present for the final game in a Virginia uniform of Chris Long, a man whose accolades this season are too numerous to list in this paragraph - and is a wonderful person on top of all of that. What does next year's seating policy have to do with supporting the group of men who entertained you all season long with their improbable (and often heart-attack-inducing) wins?
As usual, our fan base is just looking for something to whine about. Some excuse to justify their poor support of our programs (yes, programs - anyone who has been in JPJ this season for a men's or women's game knows what I'm talking about). They picked up on one of the hot topics of the year (it's bound to get white hot as the March 31 priority deadline approaches) and used that to make themselves feel better about their lack of support of our programs.
It's sad, it really is. As a fan base we demand the most from our players, our coaches and our administration. Yet we apparently demand very little from ourselves.
We're The University of Virginia. We can do better.