Worst game day experience ever.

[FortWayneFalcon]

We had a great time. I had prepared myself by lowering my expectations for the parking. A little pain this year, and then next year will be sweet.

As for standing in line to get in the stadium. That's just how it's going to be when we're close to full. I would much rather stand in line outside than be crammed inside the tunnels because they let everybody in too fast.

Will it do any good to wish for more outhouses?

[BGorDeath]

I hate to go on, but after a good night's sleep, I remembered some more stuff that should never happen...

4. No paper towels in the bathroom.
5. Miley Cyrus on the PA. I'm not at an 8 year old's slumber party. One time, yes. Three times? No. I'm embarrased that I know the song, but I have 8 year olds.
6. The hawkers didn't come out until close to halftime.

I hate to keep hitting Seabiscuit, but I was pretty upset by the whole game situation last night.

[FalconTurf]

Maybe instead of complaining on this board, we should draft a letter to the Athletic Director...Just a thought, but that may be a bit more constructive than complaining in this forum.

Big win for BG though...

I think the complaining on this board is a reality check - was it just me or did everybody see the same things? Many of us send these things to "Ask the AD" or to athletic staff members and get responses.

They seem to want to know but I'm not sure they will get this fixed. Creativity in staffing and problem solving for these situations are tough but if we want a bigger fan base it needs to be solved. This is not just an athletic issue but also a BGSU and City of BG issue with traffic. At the stadium the athletic dept. needs to use game day staff in multiple roles which include ticket taking at peak times.

[BGDrew]

Long lines is something I can deal with. Being told after waiting 15 minutes I have to go to another gate and thus miss the opening of the game even though it's not a student gate is unacceptable. Either label the gates correctly or add more gates.

The athletic department reads the boards. The complaints you're seeing aren't negative comments to just be negative. We're trying to improve things so those who saw their first Falcon game Saturday come back.

[Falcon Fanatic]

The athletic department reads the boards. The complaints you're seeing aren't negative comments to just be negative. We're trying to improve things so those who saw their first Falcon game Saturday come back.

Agree....100% I want things improved and am very hopeful that many of these things will improve for the next game. I also hope that those that had a bad experience will give BGSU another chance and come back and have a much better time!!

GO FALCONS!!
BEAT THE WEASELS!!

[always a falcon]

Long lines is something I can deal with. Being told after waiting 15 minutes I have to go to another gate and thus miss the opening of the game even though it's not a student gate is unacceptable. Either label the gates correctly or add more gates.

The athletic department reads the boards. The complaints you're seeing aren't negative comments to just be negative. We're trying to improve things so those who saw their first Falcon game Saturday come back.

I waited in line at the same gate I had been using for 20 years and yes, it said student gate, but I figured, "What the Hell, just adding more for students..good for them " Yeah, I was at the wrong gate, too. I talked to a guy in a tie walking over to the other gate and told them they should have let people know. He said, "We put signs up." I asked where. He showed me the little "yard" signs stuck in the ground. I suggested that those were beyond useless. (said nicely of course.) Then I showed him my ticket which had No gate number and the signs said nothing about where I should go.
Hey I'm going to every game, I told him. But other people are going to be aggravated. He said they had scanners, which I agreed with, but then if you knew you were going to have them... TELL PEOPLE IN BIG LETTERS AND THEN TELL THEM AGAIN!. I found out then I was talking to THE Ticket Guy and he said he could see my point and would make sure he fixed that. He was very polite and sincerely sorry that I was inconvenienced.

As I told FF1, if people GOT season ticket letters, maps and stuff and alternate parking entrances arrows and all that should have been included. If you use a stamp, get good use out of it!
So Season Ticket holders, besides WHERE you were instructed to park, did they tell you where to enter and if it was full, where to go? And FFanatic, they knew the high school game was scheduled long ago, they could have told you not to come until after.

I think that several people might have been working on lots of new things and dots did not get connected in some instances.

Hey- if our high school can blast an email to 3000 families in one morning, I think that BGSU should be able to blast season ticket holders over a period of time. Do they have all your emails?

AND let's not assume that everyone in the Athletic Department has time to read all the threads. Cut, paste and SEND your thoughts to Greg Christopher. It's like anything. He can't fix everything on game day. But if told, I have always found him willing to listen, and do whatever his resources allow him to do to fix it. If he can't, he'll tell you and tell you why not.

I loved having the tents on the student side of campus.. makes them look out and think Game Day is happening and they need to get out there. It was a Great Crowd. I loved the general Falcon Fest tent...sit down and stay a spell!!

And a Great Great effort by the Falcons to Defend the Doyt.

[hammb]

Well one of the joys of getting there to tailgate 7 hours before kickoff is not having to deal with the parking congestion issues that were sure to arise when you eliminated parking. Especially since it also created a massive bottleneck in getting TO the parking that we still have.

Knowing that things were going to be crazy on gameday this year, and parking tight, we decided to park in the lot overnight. That ended up working out, but like Falcon Fanatic the HS game the night before made it a real pain in the butt to get our spot saved for us. We ended up getting parked and situated in the lot about 11:30 on Friday night. Watching the coming and going of the HS game crowd really foreshadowed the issues of Saturday night though.

My game day experience was pretty good. Was great to see everybody again at the tailgate, great food, great drinks, and a great game. Still, it saddens me to see that so many people had issues that could affect whether or not they'll return for another game. When you get 20k people out there the AD needs to do everything in their power to make sure those people want to return.

I will say that I saw a LOT of people drinking beer. I didn't see any incidents in our section of the stands, but I think there was a lot of extra cash made for the athletic department with that decision. When we're scraping for every bit of extra revenue I think selling beer is a genius idea.

[Falcon137]

Yesterday was personally my best game day experience. We got there at 4, took about 10 minutes to get from Frickers and into our parking spot in the season ticket lot. Much easier than I was expecting, considering all the changes. Tailgating was great, walked into the game about 6:30, no problem getting in or standing in line. Got an ID bracelet, a beer, stopped for some popcorn and were in our seats with 20 minutes to spare.

[Falconfreak90]

I was able to avoid any parking issues by getting there a little before noon. Thanks to FF, BGFan and Hammb for saving a few spots. The lines to get in actually moved pretty quickly, IMO...I was astonished at how long they were. I thought we might draw in the 13-15K range but last night's crowd was one of the BEST in a long time. Lively, into the game and most stayed until the end. I had people behind us saying they had never been to a BG game before and couldn't wait to get back for the Buffalo game...THAT was cool to hear. Seeing over 20K was awesome as well...just awesome!

Sorry a lot of you had issues...that is never good. The tailgate was awesome, as usual, and I enjoyed the change of scenery parking in a new place. We will make sure to get up there early for Buffalo and Kent State as both are 3:30 kickoffs.

GO FALCONS!!! STOMP MEEEEEEECHIGAN!!

[MarkL]

I had absolutely no problems at all as far as game day experiences. My only beef was playing Miley Cyrus so much.

Here's my positives about the gameday:

Great student section! Packed and made a ton of noise.
A lot of energy all day long. You wouldn't have guessed this was an 0-2 team by the crowd support.
Band was fantastic. There were a few minor changes to halftime that were very nice.
Announcer found small little ways to keep the crowd involved.
I had zero problems parking. Parking attendants pointed us in the right direction and we got a great spot.
Serving beer in the stands was a great idea. If I didn't have time to tailgate, I most certainly would have taken advantage of this.
And of course ... BG won!

Quit being so damn pessimistic, people! We had a solid crowd and a good team to rally behind. Go BG!

[toddpav]

The team actually requested that Miley Cyrus be played a lot. They enjoy it. I'm serious.

[BGorDeath]

The team actually requested that Miley Cyrus be played a lot. They enjoy it. I'm serious.

If this is true, the end of human civilization is nearing at a very rapid pace.

[footballguy51]

A couple issues. I bought a student guest ticket for my wife, which gets her into the student section. After standing in line at gate 6, the student gate, for 15 minutes, she handed her ticket to the taker who told her to go to gate 3 at the southwest corner, not anywhere near the student section. After waiting in line there, and watching them turn students to the northwest corner (the student gate at gate 3 didn't exist anymore), the ticket takers told her that her seat was in the student section (northwest corner). Needless to say, we took one look at the huge cluster of students waiting in a non-moving line to enter the tunnel to the student section and decided to take our chances sneaking into bench reserve, section 9. We found seats and had no problems, and I guess somebody finally directed the students down to sections 7 and 9 at the end of the 1st quarter. Poor management of the gate situation.

Also, why can't we open up a section on the east side for overflow students? The student turnout was huge, and most missed the entire 1st quarter because the student section was full and they were told they could only sit there. The west stands were nearly packed, but there was plenty of room on the east side. I think I may try to get into the east stands for Buffalo and Kent. It couldn't hurt to try. Besides, wouldn't they rather have a stadium that appears full on TV?

Does anybody else agree the student section needs to be bigger? That way there is a larger designated space for students, which would avoid the problem of random students throughout the stadium? It doesn't have to be connected, either. Put students in the northwest and northeast corners.

[falconfan1]

Miley Cyrus- BooBoo Gates became the first college football player in hstory to mention the pop star when he remarked in the press conference that M Cyrus was a pick me up during fall practice and the fellows want to hear it at crunch time.

Given the results on the field, play it early and often!

Go Falcons!

[TG1996]

Does anybody else agree the student section needs to be bigger? That way there is a larger designated space for students, which would avoid the problem of random students throughout the stadium? It doesn't have to be connected, either. Put students in the northwest and northeast corners.

If it became a trend that the student section was that packed every week, every year, it would be a great idea and I'd love to have that problem.