>My question:  How do other schools treat opposing fans with respect to
>seating?
>
>Bob Mayville
>Madison, WI
 
Places that I've been to this season...
 
Alaska-Fairbanks...
I'd would say that visitors are treated well.  (By UAF, not by the home
fans!)  For the Michigan series, only 12 fans made the trip so it's hard to
say much about the visiting section.  Parents who had player tickets were
seated directly behind the bench.  Those who didn't have player tickets
seemed to have good seats in the next section over.  However, being only 12
of us, Coach Berenson managed to get us all behind the bench if that is what
we preferred.
 
[Note on the fans...MOST persons at the games were great.  The ticket
takers, persons selling programs, sweatshirts, 50-50 tickets, etc. were all
real friendly.  I even talked the girls at the souvenir shop to throw in a
free puck since I was purchasing about $85 worth of other stuff.  The only
complaint, and it's a small one, is with a pretty vocal core of UAF
followers behind us and next to us -- behind the home bench.  A fairly
standard 'fan' arrangement -- having the vocals behind the home bench -- I
assume, and these folks let us know early and often what they didn't like
about Michigan.  :-]  Jolly good fun.
 
Lake Superior...
Fair at best.  A few fans get chair tickets behind the visiting bench.  Most
get bleacher (bench) seats on the endline on the opposite side of the arena.
 Some of the visiting parents choose to stand near the press box area
because of the poor seating.  However, poor seats have never caused me not
to enjoy being at a Laker game.
 
Western Michigan...
I'm sure I'll get duly flamed for this, but WMU are the biggest pricks
around when it comes to visitor tickets.  First off, Lawson arena has about
5% general admission seating and 95% reserved, but about 20% of the tickets
they sell are Gen Ad.  I don't know who you have to know to get good seats,
but it's obviously not an acquaintance of mine.  Some of the parents get
seated behind the bench, but many of them say that in this arena these are
terrible seats.  The remainder of the parents and fans are given the last
section on the sideline.  The one redeeming quality of Lawson is that they
allow you to stand in the concourse area.  So, that's what we do.  We get
Gen Ad tickets and stand behind the reserved seating near the Michigan
section.  When Michigan is in town, there are almost as many 'standers' as
there are folks in the Gen Ad section.
 
Another problem with WMU is the lack of handicap seating.  My best friend's
father is in a wheelchair, so he is out of luck.  At WMU, he takes his
crutches, props himself up against one of the pillars in the concourse, and
leans there for 2-1/2 hours.  Inadequate.
 
My best WMU ticket story is from last season's Merrimack at WMU series.  I
ordered tickets from WMU in advance.  Of course, my address is in the Ann
Arbor area.  When I got to the game to pick up my tickets they just happened
to be the last two seats in the back row of the last section.  The worst two
seats in the arena.  And this, with the game only about 1/2 sold out.  Since
there were over 1000 empty seats, with the help of MC SID Jim Seavey we
managed to get down behind the MC bench.  I complained to WMU about the poor
treatment, but they just snickered.  (The "Ha-ha, we screwed you" response.)
 F!!! you, too.
 
And, I have to comment on:
 
Michigan State...
Terrible.  I think the parent tickets are OK, but the last game I went to
they gave Michigan an allotment of 46 tickets in a 6500+ seat arena.  Still,
they weren't as asinine as WMU.  What they do is split the Michigan fans up.
 The biggest block was a group of 6.  They put 2 UM fans in this section, 4
over here, etc.  I guess they figure that we're not as vocal in small
groups.  Anyway, the seats themselves were not too bad.  Very similar to
where I sit at Yost.
 
Michigan...
Fair to OK.  The visiting parents are right behind the bench (again, fairly
standard from what I've seen).  Of course, they are surrounded by the UM
parents and UM students, and the latter cannot be fun.  There are usually
small sections of visiting fans in both endzones, and on one sideline.  Not
A1 seats, but at least you're in a group with your fellow fans.  Now, cancel
that if the visitors are Michigan State.  The parents are in the same place
but we stick the other Spartans way up in the rafters were they can barely
see the game.  Of course, any Michigan fan will tell you that "they started
it first."  (Yeah, I know, this doesn't make it right.)
 
Another side note...as late as 4-5 years ago, there would be more MSU fans
at Yost than UM fans.  With hockey becoming popular, UM has had a "shut out
State" deal where you can't buy individual UM-MSU tickets without showing a
UM student, faculty or staff ID.  It seems to be effective.  For a Spartan
fan to get good seats, they'd have to by a UM season ticket (or at least a
pick-six ticket) and take their chances.
 
 
  John H
  U Mich