OUR Student Section Spot

[a3uge]

I've ranted on here before about flipping the student sections when Valpo hosts the Horizon League tournament. The spot where the student section normally sits is taken by the opposing band/students. Valpo students (what's left of them after our ridiculously early 2-week spring break) are left with makeshift bleachers that may or may not collapse at any given point. So instead of having a home-court advantage with a full student section, we have a larger looking away-team section and a packed in Valpo student section that looks rather embarrassing. If you fill 200 seats of the makeshift bleachers, the section still looks tiny. 200 away fans spread out makes it look large.

This may have been more evident last year. Detroit and Butler brought 2 buses of students and made the section look larger than Valpo's student section. After a while they even stopped jamming Valpo fans into the bleachers and they had to sit awkwardly on the other side.

So everyone on here always chimed in that it was against Horizon League Tournament policy to have the away team on the same side as the away team fans. If that is indeed a legitimate rule, than I wholeheartedly disagree with that idiotic decision that gives the AWAY TEAM an advantage on certain court configurations. There's a reason why they give the #1 seed home games. Are they trying to pretend they aren't home games? If they aren't home games, why does every RPI website count them as home games? It's not a neutral site, and nobody thinks of it as a neutral site.

I did a bit of research and found this:

Wright State - 2007 Horizon League Champions

2007 Horizon League Championship Game at Wright State.

Are we getting screwed? Wright State has the SAME court configuration. From the TV camera's perspective, the away team's student fans are on the left, the home team's student fans are on the right. The home team bench is on the left, the away team's bench is on the right. In the second half, the away team was shooting at the basket the home team's student section was in! Why the heck didn't Wright State have to abide by this rule? Was this rule made just last year?

It might not seem like that big of a deal, but if Wright State hosts the tournament again, I hope to god the Horizon League gives Wright State the same punishment as they're giving Valpo right now.

---

Okay, so given this decision against us probably won't get reversed as long as we're in the Horizon, I think it's time to get off our butt and do some proactive things to make things a bit more reasonable.

a3uge's solutions

1. We need full-time part-time bleachers for tournament time. The bleachers would span the width of the bleachers on the other side, and go all the way up to the wall.  These could easily be used for other big games. Heck, instead of sectioning off E for students in regular season play, only allow students in the bleachers on either side, then sell all the tickets in E. Poof Valpo, I just made you just made some more money with a small bleacher investment. This would force the concessions to move to a more legitimate area. Why are the concession stands 10 ft from the court anyways? They should be in a hallway like a normal stadium.
2. Collapse the existing student section bleachers and put in another makeshift bleacher for the away team. Make it unstable so away team fans don't get too excited.
3. Flip the benches around if that's really the problem.
4. Leave the Horizon League for the Great West.

/rant

[historyman]

It could be called the "Valpo rule." Obviously Commissioner LeCrone believes Valpo had too big an advantage with the Valpo student section near the visiting team's bench.

[gerb]

I believe this was a change going forward to ensure a more even playing field than that game. WSU had 3000 student tickets sold and actually had to construct new bleachers to accommodate overflow. That, compared to about 50 bulldog students was inbalance the HL didnt anticipate. Also, there was enough animosity between the schools at that point that - while unfair - it was probably in Butler's best interests. The HL didn't want a BU student getting mauled by a horde of adrenaline pumped WSU students. I was in the front row of the student section and the intensity of that crowd was almost unfathomable.
I think there were enough complaints that the HL will plan ahead a little better to make sure things are separate but equal (in a good way) regardless of venue.

[a3uge]

It could be called the "Valpo rule." Obviously Commissioner LeCrone believes Valpo had too big an advantage with the Valpo student section near the visiting team's bench.

So it's not an advantage to have 500+ in a student section by the visitors bench in an 11k seat stadium for a student body of 17,789 students? That's just outrageous. Valpo is already at a disadvantage with 4k students (whom are all on spring break) playing in a 5k seat arena. Furthermore, why is it his job to even this out? It's not a neutral site. It's not recognized as a neutral site by the selection committee. It's a freaking home game.

[Smj]

Totally agree with this "rant".   However this rant makes complete sense so it seems like less of a rant.....

[vufan75]

I also agree with this post (or rant). If you earned the right to host the tournament by winning the regular season championship over the course of 16 games, 8 of which were conference home games with the student/pep band seating in a certain area, why should the host team student section and pep band suddenly be problematic and relocated (in the supposed interest of neutrality) for the tournament games? I've attended Valpo regular season games for many years, including both last year and this year, along with the conference tournament games last year and this year, and I for one was not overjoyed to see a well earned opportunity to play on our home court last year/this year diminished to some extent with our student fans and pep band moved while another schools student fans and pep band sat in the same student section area. If the commissioner really wants to see the most exciting venue for the tournament and national tv, I'd suggest reconsidering the decision at tournament time only of moving the host schools student fans and pep band and replacing it with another schools. Unless there previously were real security issues I at least am unaware of which hopefully police or campus/arena security might be able to handle, why look for ways to minimize and neutralize the game environment. In spite of ARC limitations with seating for our students and the pep band, GO VALPO!! Bring home our 1st Horizon League tournament championship!! Our team and especially the seniors deserve this opportunity to win it all at home, and it would be a great way to cap off their careers in the HL.           

[hailcrusaders]

Not to mention that it was downright humiliating to have over a hundred Butler, then Detroit students stand directly under our Valparaizone banner.