Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Seating & Registration Explanations

Every year during MUSS ticket distribution it's inevitable there will be members who are upset with their seats. This usually results in angry emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, etc. Each person always feels they are not getting what they deserve and it's all the MUSS' fault. This post is meant as an explanation as to why things are done the way they are.

First and foremost registration is done online because it's easiest. The suggestion of doing an in-person registration is always brought up and that just wouldn't work. We cannot ask students to line-up and camp out for days just to register for The MUSS. University administration would never allow students to miss class, and since most of you have jobs it would be very difficult to take that much time out of your lives to stand in line. On top of that it would be extremely hard to patrol the line and there would most certainly be line-jumpers and people saving spots for one another. You might think doing an in-person registration would reward the biggest fans, but in reality there are dedicated fans who would not be able to take time away from class, work, family, etc. and we would probably receive even more complaints than we do now.

MUSS seating is based on when you register. If you register the earliest you will get the best seats. When there are 3,000 people all trying to register at the same time it is bound to slow things down; that cannot be avoided. If you are trying to buy an iPad online, but they sell out before you can get through, is that Apple's fault? When that many people are trying for the same thing some are bound to get lucky.

We often get the suggestion to base seating on class standing and/or years in the MUSS. Both of these scenarios would affect group seating. If you are a senior, but your sibling is a freshman you would not be able to sit together. If you've been in the MUSS for three years but your spouse has never been a MUSS member you would not be able to sit together. At the end of the 2011 football season we sent a survey to all MUSS members asking which type of seating you preffered. By far the majority of you said you wanted to keep seating the way it is: based on registration time.

We also get the suggestion to do general admission seating. The same reason we don't do an in-person registration applies here. We cannot require students to stand in line for days to get into the games. Security personnel would need to be hired to patrol the line and The MUSS does not have the resources for that. On top of that it would cause even more problems inside the stadium. The MUSS has tried to build a tailgating atmosphere and that would disappear if we moved to general admission.

Most of you don't realize the student section used to be general admission and less than 200 students would attend every week. Only when The MUSS was formed and reserved seating was introduced did students start to attend. Reserved seating makes The MUSS unique compared to other student sections around the country.

We understand this is not a perfect system, however, any way we do registration and/or seating will not be perfect. The MUSS Board has this same discussion every year and we always come to the same conclusion: this is the best way to do things for now with the resources we have. Will it change in the future? Perhaps. But for now we are looking forward to an awesome football season.

We encourage all of you to enjoy your years in the MUSS and to appreciate the seat you have. There are a lot of graduates who would love to be back in school so they can be in the MUSS. There are also a lot of students who want to attend football games but they won't be able to. Don't take it for granted! Grab your red, warm up your voices and we will see you in Rice-Eccles tomorrow!



17 comments:

  1. GA seating???? 1st come 1st serve... Solves all of your problems

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  2. Can't wait for tomorrow! Go UTES!

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  3. Leasing some server space for a day, collaborating with the awesome computer science dept. for a solution, seniority system, a rewards system where points are awarded based on attendance of other sporting activities (want to sit in a group, everybody needs to go to more basketball, baseball, etc.) and I'm sure there are a number of other solutions that are all better than the current system. I have never seen a group in a leadership capacity shift as much blame from a problem as I have the MUSS board on this issue. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist (even though they could access those as well at the U) to figure this out.

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  4. I'm just confused as to how we are suppose to transfer/return our tickets at least two days before a game if we don't pick up our tickets until less than time before the Northern Colorado game. Ticket pickup either needs to be moved up a week, or the first game should not count against us.

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    1. The fact they give you two games to miss and still get early registration is far too lenient anyways, in my opinion.

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  5. GA is the answer. And don't tell me the system is solelyon time, because I've even been bumped up in the past because of who I knew with connections. System isn't fair

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  6. The issues you brought up are valid but I don't think that is why the majority is upset. The majority is upset because every single year the site crashes at registration time and only the lucky few get really good seats.

    There is infact a resolution to this problem! You say this "cannot be avoided" but that is 100% incorrect. Ask any of the thousands of internet sites that get floods of traffic or any really good hosting provider.

    The MUSS board seriously needs to start looking at better solutions like CloudFlare, Amazon web services, and others that will easily solve this problem. Hosting the sites internally is stupid, inefficient, and will have the same problems every single year.

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  7. Amazing how prideful and political muss leadership has become. Not only to muss board members get the best seats, but they get one friend who can sign up whenever they want and get preference due to their connections

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    1. Ive even seen people who weren't attending the U get front row of the MUSS

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  8. I feel like the MUSS board isn't really addressing the problem. As people have stated, there are multiple ways to getting around the site from crashing and I guarantee a student or professor at the U would be willing to help. At least with consulting, you're at a University! Use your resources!

    I also know of instances where individuals were given "special privileges" which resulted in good seats without the wait time. If this is an issue every year, maybe new blood needs to be brought into the MUSS board.

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  9. Do general admittance. First to get there gets the best seats. That is dedication to the team. Secondly, the problem isn't doing it by time. It is the fact that it was by complete luck when you were able to sign up. There were thousands of people ready to sign up at 12:00. Some got signed up by 12:05 while some didn't get to sign up until 1:30 because of the system. That needs to be fixed if you continue doing it by time. Also, why are people who signed up at 1:45 getting lower bowl while people who signed up at 12:30 getting row 40? While both weren't in a group. It doesn't make sense. There are definitely members given special privileges and that is the problem. I don't trust the integrity of the MUSS over everything else.

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  10. Am I the only one that hate the lanyards we have to wear the entire game? What a stupid idea. What I enjoyed about the MUSS was the fact that if I hated standing right in front of some loudmouth idiot, I could move, and actually enjoy the game.

    Now I'm stuck with whomever I got assigned to sit/stand near, and I can't avoid it.

    What happens when everyone stops wearing them? What happens when half the people lose them? I feel like I'm being treated like a child. What was wrong with having tickets?

    I think the real reason for the change in tickets was that the MUSS board got sick of people sneaking their friends into the lower bowl, and being packed as uncomfortably as the huddled masses up above.

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    1. It crowded them to much down front and they wanted their space

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  11. I plan on having my lanyard on but under my shirt, if security needs to see it it would only take a second to show, and you won't look like an idiot the entire game

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  12. I dont think students started coming because of the MUSS, i think people started coming because of Urban Meyer and Coach Whit. Look at the big schools, like the SEC, the do general admission and get a good turn out. If its that you dont want people camoing out, then dont let them line up till like 45 minutes before, that way students will get there early, tail gate, then hop in line. You cant say this is the only way it works. Theres lots of school that do it different and it works great.

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  13. When preparing for registration the MUSS consults multiple departments on campus. All servers available to The MUSS were used during registration. Every year, The MUSS sets records when it comes to the first day of registration, and this year was no exception. We received as many registrations in four hours as we did in an entire month last year. We don't claim this is the only way to do things, but as stated above, we feel this is the best way to do things with the resources we have.

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  14. Thanks for all the hard work this year, for me it was painless signed up and picked up my tickets. Your system works for me.

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