Some Thoughts on a Very Disappointing Night

[Todd4State]

Not sure of your locale Shotgun but let's say you lived in Jackson or south of there and you didn't get off work until 5! Would you be there Friday night at 6 and then back again Saturday at 2 and then again Sunday at noon? That's tough to do. Now, if you're a local yocal then maybe but not all of us are that close. Going back to Saturday doubleheaders would help alleviate this issue but that's not going to happen. Again, I try to ensure my seats are taken if I can't get there but I can't speak for everyone else.

To all those bitching about chair back seats at baseball. Understand your Athletic Department doesn’t give a shit if anyone sits in those seats they only care about the dollars spent to buy them. With the new stadium we successfully killed off a generation of people that were a big part of Supporting the baseball program for the last 40 years. This is just the reality of the situation the people that used to sit in chair back seats were priced out of them. The only thing that matters is the $$.

Even more reason to do it my way. You buy season tickets- your seat is reserved for SBW and postseason play only. Every other game is open season.

[ShotgunDawg]

Not sure of your locale Shotgun but let's say you lived in Jackson or south of there and you didn't get off work until 5! Would you be there Friday night at 6 and then back again Saturday at 2 and then again Sunday at noon? That's tough to do. Now, if you're a local yocal then maybe but not all of us are that close. Going back to Saturday doubleheaders would help alleviate this issue but that's not going to happen. Again, I try to ensure my seats are taken if I can't get there but I can't speak for everyone else.

I get your point sand it's a unique issue to MSU. However, unique issues require unique solutions and these seats are empty every game.

Lets just find a solution

[ShotgunDawg]

To all those bitching about chair back seats at baseball. Understand your Athletic Department doesn?t give a shit if anyone sits in those seats they only care about the dollars spent to buy them. With the new stadium we successfully killed off a generation of people that were a big part of Supporting the baseball program for the last 40 years. This is just the reality of the situation the people that used to sit in chair back seats were priced out of them. The only thing that matters is the $$.

I don't agree with this

I think Cohen very much wants those seats to be filled. He cares deeply about the baseball program.

[Todd4State]

I don't agree with this

I think Cohen very much wants those seats to be filled. He cares deeply about the baseball program.

The problem is and always will be the old geezer asshole that's BUT I PAID FOR MY SEAT!guy. He's going to be the one raising hell against the guy that just wants to watch the game.

I agree with you on this. The grandstand people aren't pulling their weight. And I don't think the ticket exchange is working all that well either. Time to simplify it and let people sit in the grandstand.

[Bothrops]

Because our stadium is awesome, and offers the ability for fans to walk around the park during a game, you're going to see this. Unless the game is at, or near full capacity, I expect people to come and go from their seats.

[parabrave]

Here are some quick thoughts:

1. It shouldn't surprise anyone with what happened in our basketball game. The basketball program has too many clowns in it & has for sometime. It's extremely obvious that we have to recruit tougher kids. Hopefully Perry & Woodard are that. The program has lacked tough leadership for a decade.

2. Don't look to much into the baseball loss tonight. Auburn had a good bit go there way to win that one. It'll be good to see how this team handles adversity. Tough loss tonight but not a big deal in the long run. Unlike our basketball program, the baseball program has tough kids & will respond positively.

3. Lastly, here is picture of behind home plate tonight in the 5th inning well before the Womens' Basketball game started.



I am just failing to understand why these seats are always empty.

Who are the people that own these seats?
Why do they choose to never show up for baseball games?
Why would people spend money on these baseball seats & never come to games?

We are considered one of the top 3 most passionate baseball fan bases in the country, yet this issue continues to make us look like shit.
Can you imagine turning on an Alabama football game & seeing blocks of empty seats on the 50 yard line?
Can you imagine turning on a Duke game & seeing empty lower seats at Cameron?

Why is this ok? If these people just want to spend money, then do everyone a favor & just make a donation & let others that actually attend baseball games sit in those seats. It's a problem that has existed far too long, cheapens our baseball program, & is apparently well beyond the mental capacity of our athletic department to fix. It look absolutely awful on TV.

The seating is not only a MSU problem. I regularly attend the Shuckers games in Biloxi where the Casinos have purchased most of the seats and yes there are always empty.

[Joe Schmedlap]

I been looking for Chairback seats to any home weekend series and can't find any on vividseat, seatgeek or any other sites. I hate not getting to enjoy a game where high dollar seats aren't being used and I have to do standing room only type stuff.

Look on Stubhub. I have a friend that has gotten tickets there twice this season.

[Steakonastick]

We can’t afford to piss off the big boosters by giving away their seats to first come first serve. That 10% of our fan base pays 90% of the bills. And i am sorry for the general admission fans who think they should
be entitled to the best seats in the house. But we have to reward people who donate and purchase season tickets. Our school has a little over 12,000 Bulldog Club memebers. That number is piss poor for a fan base our size.

But it’s a no win situation for our athletic dept. And this is a problem every school in the country is having. You just notice ours more since the grandstand is at ground level now.

[AROB44]

We can?t afford to piss off the big boosters by giving away their seats to first come first serve. That 10% of our fan base pays 90% of the bills. And i am sorry for the general admission fans who think they should
be entitled to the best seats in the house. But we have to reward people who donate and purchase season tickets. Our school has a little over 12,000 Bulldog Club memebers. That number is piss poor for a fan base our size.

But it?s a no win situation for our athletic dept. And this is a problem every school in the country is having. You just notice ours more since the grandstand is at ground level now.

+1000. Rep Given

[ShotgunDawg]

Because our stadium is awesome, and offers the ability for fans to walk around the park during a game, you're going to see this. Unless the game is at, or near full capacity, I expect people to come and go from their seats.

This is most certainly not the issue in this case

[Activated Alpha]

I fully expected for the men's basketball team to lose against Liberty. They have been too much of a roller coaster team and I saw it coming. The baseball team just barely lost. Now I know they had a 5-0 run lead going into the 6th, but Small knows he can't just leave fastballs up as beach balls. SEC hitters will take advantage of that. The only solace is that our hitters were hitting the ball very well, but just right at their outfielders. It happens every now and then. Hopefully we can come into today's game with a killer instinct and put Auburn away for these two games.

[ShotgunDawg]

We can’t afford to piss off the big boosters by giving away their seats to first come first serve. That 10% of our fan base pays 90% of the bills. And i am sorry for the general admission fans who think they should
be entitled to the best seats in the house. But we have to reward people who donate and purchase season tickets. Our school has a little over 12,000 Bulldog Club memebers. That number is piss poor for a fan base our size.

But it’s a no win situation for our athletic dept. And this is a problem every school in the country is having. You just notice ours more since the grandstand is at ground level now.

I agree with this while believing there is some room for a creative solution.

Look, MSU is unique. It's in the middle of nowhere in a small town and it's fanbase lives 2 hours away in all directions. It's a unique problem that requires a unique solution. I'm not sure there is any other power 5 school in country with this unique issue. Thus we may have to find an outside the box solution that has been never been done before. One that the major boosters can live with.

I'm curious what's more important to these boosters, "their seats" or "the health of the program"

[Cooterpoot]

It’s not hard. The school can work with those boosters to sell their unused tickets to other state fans. This isn’t hard. Shit, it’s easy.

[Coursesuper]

I don't agree with this

I think Cohen very much wants those seats to be filled. He cares deeply about the baseball program.

You can not agree all you want. But your still wrong and and naive and you know jack shit about how things work. The AD doesn’t give a damn about asses In seats as long as the $$$ flow.

[Jarius]

Not sure of your locale Shotgun but let's say you lived in Jackson or south of there and you didn't get off work until 5! Would you be there Friday night at 6 and then back again Saturday at 2 and then again Sunday at noon? That's tough to do. Now, if you're a local yocal then maybe but not all of us are that close. Going back to Saturday doubleheaders would help alleviate this issue but that's not going to happen. Again, I try to ensure my seats are taken if I can't get there but I can't speak for everyone else.

Then get your tickets to someone who can use them (like you do). It's not that hard. There are a crap ton of people that would love to be at the games where there are hundreds of empty seats in the grandstands and nowhere to purchase said seats. Buying those tickets and just not making the effort to give them to someone is a crappy thing to do. It really is not hard to find someone who wants seats that good, especially on weekend series.

[Saltydog]

Even more reason to do it my way. You buy season tickets- your seat is reserved for SBW and postseason play only. Every other game is open season.

I would suggest something a little different. If a chairback owner decides he/she's not going to the game and doesn't have someone specifically to transfer the tix too (I occasionally have that issue for some midweek games), they could simply transfer them back to the box office. Then, anyone could walk up and purchase unoccupied chairbacks. The school would capitalize as they would have sold the tix essentially twice. Again, this would require some discipline of behalf of the season tix owner but I absolutely hate for my tix to go unused and would do it every single time I couldn't make it or didn't have someone taking my tix.

[ShotgunDawg]

I would suggest something a little different. If a chairback owner decides he/she's not going to the game and doesn't have someone specifically to transfer the tix too (I occasionally have that issue for some midweek games), they could simply transfer them back to the box office. Then, anyone could walk up and purchase unoccupied chairbacks. The school would capitalize as they would have sold the tix essentially twice. Again, this would require some discipline of behalf of the season tix owner but I absolutely hate for my tix to go unused and would do it every single time I couldn't make it or didn't have someone taking my tix.

But now your asking the season ticket holder to do something that could be a hassle.

How about a notification going out to the season ticket holders phone 12 hours before game time.

The notification would ask: How many of your tickets will you use for today's game?

Ticket holder selects how many, gets bulldog points added to their account for the unused ones, and the unused go on sale to GA.

Easy peasy, problem solved. The key is the notification system and the athletic departments taking the initiative rather expecting the fan too.

[99jc]

Let me be clear. We don't have a baseball attendance issue.

We have an attendance issue only with the rich 17ers that buy the prime grand stand seats.

I wouldn't say anything if these seats were just empty sometimes, but they are literally empty EVERY.SINGLE.GAME

The people that own those seats and many other in the grand stand only attend 1 or 2 series a year & the regionals.

I'm not here to say that they should be attending, but for goodness sake don't continue to buy the prime stadium seats & not show up; thus making our baseball program look bad.

Watch an LSU, Arkansas, or Ole Miss home SEC series & you'll see that for some reason they don't have this issue

I have some damn good seats not directly behind home plate but not far I always make sure my seats are given away to friends in Starkville. I cant speak for the rest of the rich 17ers.

[ShotgunDawg]

I have some damn good seats not directly behind home plate but not far I always make sure my seats are given away to friends in Starkville. I cant speak for the rest of the rich 17ers.

That's awesome. Please continue to do so. However, it's clear your in the minority on this and most people don't do a thing with their seats

[Saltydog]

We can?t afford to piss off the big boosters by giving away their seats to first come first serve. That 10% of our fan base pays 90% of the bills. And i am sorry for the general admission fans who think they should
be entitled to the best seats in the house. But we have to reward people who donate and purchase season tickets. Our school has a little over 12,000 Bulldog Club memebers. That number is piss poor for a fan base our size.

The number of bulldog club members is quite embarrassing. You don't have to give a large amount at all to join. I'm not sure there's a minimum amount required to join.