Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rotten Oranges


I nearly made this my first video blog post, but honestly I don't feel like going through all that shit right now.  It's late, I have to be awake at 7:30 AM, and I'm pissed off.  So a regular post it is, to spare myself the embarrassment, and to vent.

Tonight I went to the Georgetown-Syracuse basketball game.  Any fan of a sports team will at some point blame referees for the outcome of a game.  The referees were absolutely terrible tonight, calling probably about 10 offensive fouls - an unheard of amount.  This played a huge factor in the game, but not the biggest.  When you purchase a ticket to a sporting event, do you go so you can sit with your arms crossed?

The Carrier Dome was filled with a fairly thin crowd by Hoya versus Orangemen standards, having just over 26,000 people attend the game.  That itself is pretty embarrassing.  What makes it even worse is what seemed like every seating section around me (lower level, behind the basket) were all sitting down during the final 3 minutes of the game.  Of course Syracuse led the majority of the game, but started losing it around this time.  At this point, I was furious, and disgusted to be see this vital game slip away.  Finally, some ballsy Bro started screaming at all the so called "fans" sitting, unmotivated at the game.  For once the drunk guy standing up yelling profanities wasn't the asshole, everyone else was.

Maybe it would be different if SU wasn't so worried about money by giving those lower level seating priorities to students instead of wealthy, subdued "fans".  See Duke University for example, the Cameron Crazies, seated lower level on the side of the court, control the game.  Syracuse however, puts the student section on the end of the court directly behind the basket, not uncommon by any means.  But in terms of which end they're located, it doesn't even make sense.  The opposing teams shoots on the end opposite of the student section during the most important time in the game, the end.  So basically instead of giving the home Orange a bit of an advantage at the end of a game, Syracuse University completely negates that thought by giving the opposition the relief of shooting at an end full of quiet "fans"m and taking the student section out of the picture.

So if SU really wanted to help their basketball program, they should try thinking for a few minutes.  There is probably something I missed that would clearly point to the reason why the current seating scheme makes sense, I don't know.  I do know that the team's best fans are the students, regardless of revenue they generate fo SU, even though the students do pay tuition out the ass.  They bring intense support every game.  5 losses in the past 7 games after starting 18-0 should be unacceptable, there's only so much the players/coaches can do.  Hall of fame coach Jim Boeheim is on record for calling out the Syracuse fans many times.  It's time for SU to hop off the economic greed train and reward the biggest fans they have instead.

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