After months of drafting plans and seeking the Mississippi State athletic department’s approval to gain exclusive student seating in the Humphrey Coliseum, Rick’s Rowdies officers decided Thursday at a lengthy meeting to abandon their vision of reserving the best student seats.
If approved, the plan would have given Rowdies members exclusive rights to lower-level student seats, beginning with the first row of gray endzone seats and ending with the eighth row of maroon seats up to an hour before tipoff.
MSU athletic director Greg Byrne said he appreciates the Rowdies enthusiasm and understands why the group would seek reserved seating.
“We want to try to work with them in every way possible, and at the same time we need to balance that with the general student body and what they mean for us as well,” he said.
Will Bryan, Rick’s Rowdies’ president known for adorning himself with a maroon cape and wig every game he attends, said the decision to cancel efforts toward gaining preferential seating was made partly to avoid a negative light being cast on the organization.
“When fans, students and alumni come into the Hump and see Rick’s Rowdies, we want them to have a positive view toward us. We want them look at us and feed off our energy,” Bryan said. “So to do anything that would severely hurt that, it wouldn’t be good for the Rowdies, and it wouldn’t be good for the basketball team, and it wouldn’t be good for the atmosphere in the Hump.”
Rick’s Rowdies freshman treasurer Brent Thompson said the only reason the Rowdies sought reserved seats was to reward its members for showing dedication by attending meetings and showing up to low-profile games.
However, he said the group’s officers decided the difficulty involved with hashing out the seating plan with the athletic department made the reward unworthy of their time.
“We were spending so much time on it, we were afraid that we were neglecting the other responsibilities we had as officers,” Thompson said. “The Rowdies would not benefit as much because we would be lacking in other areas.”
Bryan said for the 2009-10 basketball season, student seating will be first-come, first-serve. However, he said he feels confident Rowdies will still dominate the lower-level sections of student seating.
“We are going to put it on the Rowdies themselves,” he said. “If they want the best seats, they need to get there early.”
Byrne agreed, saying Rowdies will probably be the first students in the Hump, making reserved seating a relatively moot point.
“I know because of the passion they have they will be the first ones in line and will probably very often be in a position, because of getting there early, to have an opportunity to get good seats, just like the rest of our student body will,” he said.
If the seating plan was ever implemented, the Rowdies anticipated using a point system to determine which members sat closest to the action. Members are awarded points for attending meetings and games, and the Rowdies with the highest point totals would have had first dibs on seats. However, since the plan has been axed, the point system will be used to award prizes.
“The point system is something we will keep intact. How we use it fully, we’ll see, but that’s not going to go away,” Bryan said. “We will have prizes like a signed basketball by the coach. That will probably be one of them, maybe pizza parties, signed pictures of the team, stuff like that.”
Bryan said the Rowdies’ attempt to reserve lower-level student seating can be attributed to a re-energized student group led by a new cast of officers, with exception to the Rowdies public relations officer who held the post in 2008.
He said he would love to eventually see the Rowdies display the same type of enthusiasm and dedication as held by basketball spirit groups such as the Cameron Crazies from Duke and the Izzone from Michigan State.
“We haven’t been as unified in the past as I feel like we are this year and as we will continue to get in the future years,” Bryan said. “That was one of the big goal’s this year: make sure everybody is on the same page, make sure everybody has that same drive and intensity.”
The Izzone, for example, is composed of over 3,000 members. To even gain entry into Michigan State’s 3,200 seat student section, its students have to be a member of the organization, which costs $180 dollars – a fee that covers a 15-game student ticket package, according to Michigan State’s Student Alumni Foundation Web site.
In contrast, the Rowdies claim about 400 members and charge $15 to gain membership, a fee mainly covering T-shirt costs.
Byrne said the Rowdies inability to produce a revenue stream for the athletic department is not the issue.
“Right now, it’s not so much the fact they aren’t a revenue producer,” he said. “We just want to make sure we are trying to give all of our students the opportunity to get good seats, and we want them there for every game regardless of who we’re playing.”
If every Rowdie showed up to a home basketball game, the group would occupy 24 percent of MSU’s 2,621-seat student section.
During the Bulldog’s surprising loss to Rider in its season opener, less than 100 members were present.
Bryan said the seating issue has not totally flickered out and could regain attention if the Rowdies continue to grow. The group’s all-time membership high is 750 students.
“If we continue to grow to 1,000 or 2,000 Rowdies, I don’t see any reason to why it wouldn’t be something you could at least look at,” he said. “Whether you follow through and implement it or not, it’s always an option.”