West Virginia University officials expect some problems and confusion will arise out of the new student section arrangements for home basketball games at the WVU Coliseum.
The University announced Monday it’s cutting nearly 500 student seats in order to get more students closer to the court and create a more intimidating atmosphere.
Before the change, 380 seats were available on the court-level seats.
Now, 836 students will be able fit into the area renamed the "Maniac Madhouse."
"It’s going to be better seats in a better area," said Mountaineer Maniacs President Cassie Werner. "I understand how students may be upset by looking at the changes on a diagram. But once a student experiences the new seats, they’re going to want to be a part of it."
West Virginia head men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins said opinions from all parties were welcomed on the project, which has taken nearly three years to accomplish.
Former WVU Student Government Association President Jason Parsons and Maniacs Director Jeremy Hatcher first brought up a possible change.
The final plan, however, was designed by Werner.
"We’ve met with virtually everybody and ran things off of everybody. It’s been a long time coming and a lot of thought put into it," Huggins said. "This whole thing started out with ‘what can we do to make it a better experience?’ We want to be more fan-friendly. We want to be more student-friendly.
"I think that doing this, if it works out even close to the way we envision it, we’re going to have more people at games because it’ll be fun."
The athletic department took into account the season ticket holders who will now be placed behind the "Maniac Madhouse" instead of in the upper level, according to WVU Director of Sports Marketing Matt Wells,
"Our feedback was that (the season ticket holders) were excited because there is a high demand to be in the midlevel," Wells said. "It’s still to be determined on how it will work out. I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way."
Besides the students’ direct impact on the game, Huggins also said the move will have a secondary effect on the entire basketball program due to a stronger atmosphere.
Huggins gave the example of Duke’s basketball student section, the Cameron Crazies, and said that besides the game itself, people watch TV to see the atmosphere.
"When we can get this generated, it sells. This is a great selling point for the University. It’s easier to be on television," Huggins said. "We’re on television 18 times this year, because we changed the schedule to make it more difficult, and people naturally want to watch.
"We wanted to create that atmosphere and have kids watching it on TV saying ‘man, I’d like to be part of that.’"
2 comments
Before the change, 380 seats were available on the court-level seats.
Now, 836 students will be able fit into the area renamed the "Maniac Madhouse.""So how is it really? The student section lost 500 seats? What was the number of student seats before the change and what is it now?Thanks