It was a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon. The U of M was preparing to take on the Volunteers in a sure-to-be college football grudge match. After reading the article published in The Helmsman about no student being turned away from the game, I decided to go and cheer on my Tigers. All was well, but not for long. I arrived at the game an hour and half early because I knew things would get really crowded close to kick-off time. One by one, all of the students around me (mind you we were sitting in the student section) were forced to leave their seats because The University had sold their tickets to other people (mostly Tennessee fans). Then it came my turn to be ousted from my seat. An arrogant middle-aged Vol came up and said "these are my seats, move." I turned to him and said, "this is the student section, The University said I could sit here." That's when the security got involved.
If this sounds familiar to any of you students, I know why. It happened to damn near all of us. Why is it The University sold our seats? If you sold our seats, why did you let us in the game?
In fact, students were told not to leave their seats. If you did not have a ticket, they would not let you back into the stadium from the concession areas. I asked the security officer and he told me the other people had paid good money for their tickets. I paid $1,500 for mine. It was at this time, I was told to leave. Seems the security couldn't handle the truth.
Anyways, to you football players, you all played great and all of the students are proud of you. I'm sorry we couldn't cheer you on in person, but like I said, The University sold our seats to Tennessee fans.
I'll be there next time, but I guess I will buy my ticket.
