Seating shift puts students at field ends

PROVO — For decades at Brigham Young University home football games, BYU students have sat directly behind the Cougar team bench in the stadium's east stands.

Next season, BYU students will have to scream louder to have the football team hear them. As part of a seating shuffle to offer high-priced tickets at the LaVell Edwards Stadium and increase athletics revenues, student seating will be on the end lines and in the end zones.

"There is nothing worse than getting stuck in the nosebleed section, having to yell from the top," said Matt Smith, a receiver on the BYU football team. "I'd rather have students yelling behind us than have the quiet people right behind the bench."

BYU men's athletic director Val Hale announced in February that BYU will remove a block of 2,700 bleacher seats in the stadium's east stands.

In its place will be 1,700 chairs seats, billed as extra wide and boasting legroom. Tickets for the premium chairs cost $1,000 apiece and are for Cougar Club members only. The change drops Edwards Stadium seating capacity from 65,000 to 64,045.

Also, students will pay $85 — up $10 from last season — for an all-sports pass. The pass provides tickets to home football and basketball games as well as other varsity sports.

At some other universities, students get seats near the action for less money.

Students at the University of Arizona, for example, pay $35 for a season pass to Wildcat football games. They sit directly behind the Wildcats' bench in Arizona Stadium, which seats 56,500.

"Sitting the student fans down by the field where the team can hear them is real important to our team," said Arizona head football coach John Mackovich.

For years, Arizona students have paid a low rate for prime seats, said John Perrin, senior associate athletic director at Arizona.

"They (students) are your most vocal, noisy fans and your most avid in making noise," Perrin said. "We want them (students) right down there where players can feel that emotion."

Oklahoma University students pay $85 per season tickets and sit behind the Sooners' bench at the 70,004-seat Memorial Stadium. And at the University of Memphis, full-time students are admitted free — part of their tuition and fees are automatically diverted to the athletic department — but sit between the 20-yard line and the end zone on the Tigers' side.