For the first time during my tenure in college, I will not be attending an Oregon football home game when I was present in Eugene.
And I could care less.
The rat race to acquire one of those tickets is a routine that I’m not interested in going through. In previous years, I’ve been able to stroll into the ticket office around 1 p.m. and receive one of the remaining couple hundred tickets. By hardly making any real effort, I was smug knowing that I was smarter than all those suckers who waited in line either the night before or morning of the distribution date.
That wasn’t the case this Monday when seemingly the entire population of freshman descended upon the Erb Memorial Union in anticipation of their first Duck football game as students.
Sorry, but waiting in line for over three-and-a-half hours is not worth a football game that takes roughly the same amount of time.
You freshmen may ask “Why not?” What could be better than Duck football?
Well, it depends on your definition of fun. For me, standing shoulder-to-shoulder for four to five hours (depending on when you choose to arrive) in either the blaring heat or cold rain while dealing with obnoxious drunk students yelling constant obscenities and ethnic slurs, puking on the people in front of them, shoving or physically threatening you for absolutely no reason except for looking in their general direction, while having marijuana smoke constantly blown in your face is not something I consider a good time. It’s especially less fun when you spend a significant amount of your time Monday waiting to get the ticket.
But hey, I know lots of you get your kicks from some of the aforementioned activities though I don’t understand why a football game is the place to do it all at once.
That’s one reason why I don’t plan on attending another football game with a student ticket.
Everything about the build-up to these games is a joke. From the ticket distribution where students consistently cut in front of you to the dangerous stampede once the students are allowed into the stands are strenuous methods of getting into football games.
Something needs to change because what’s going on right now isn’t working.
The ticket office is constantly overwhelmed, security guards at games are vastly outnumbered and many seem incapable of escorting troublesome students out of the stadium.
The “Code of ConDUCKt” Campaign? Since when do drunken college students adhere to advertisements asking them to ‘act nice’? I haven’t seen or envisioned seeing any students telling themselves to be gentle when they’re at their most inebriated state.
It’s only a matter of time before something tragic happens when a stampede or one slippery step results in a student being left in a wheelchair – or even dying.
What happened at USC a month ago should serve as a warning to Autzen stadium. Before the Trojans’ game against Nebraska, students were waiting outside the Coliseum gates when cutters rushed towards the entrance and created a massive pile-up. Students were trampled on, people had to be escorted away by police and many came away from the incident missing a few toenails. An act of pointless violence all to get into a football game that wasn’t even going to be a contest.
Have fun waiting in line for the Portland State tickets, folks. I’m sure it’ll be worth your time and energy.
[email protected]