Guest Column: I cheer, we all cheer: Students have right to any seat
I had no idea just how possessive fans get at the USU basketball games until I sat in their spots.
Two Mondays ago, just like everyone else, I wanted my mom to see me on ESPN. So my crew and I got there early and claimed our seats. As many of you have attended a basketball game, you realize that these are free seats.
Being free seats, there is no assigned seating. But apparently the first-come, first-served rule was not in effect. It was more like, “We were there last week and we called tap tap seat back, so that’s our spot.”
But we stood our ground despite the snide remarks and constant elbows being thrown at us. It was reminiscent of a well-lit mosh pit, but we were cheering for a team instead of a band.
We are good fans. Fanatics even. We did our fair share of cheering, cat calling, happy hands distractions and showing everyone the Scotsman, the Englishman and the true-blooded Aggie from Utah. But the people behind us who got pushed back a couple of rows didn’t like their view. They even had the audacity to steal our “We heart USU” sign. They took our sign when we unknowingly set it down on our seats. We were so naive, cheering happily, watching the game, having no idea what was happening behind us.
We were not causing any sort of even mild discomfort to our fellow fans. Our sign etiquette was superb. Only during timeouts did we hold up our sign and scream our “wahoos.” In case you are not familiar with this tactic, it is like TRL – if you sense the camera could possibly pan across you, you scream. This is all in vain attempt of getting on camera and wave to my mom.
Again, only during timeouts and did we hold up our sign. Alas, those people, who were pushed back a couple of rows, were not having it. This was made abundantly clear when my friend got hit in the head with the remaining shreds of our once great sign that they tore to pieces. We have rights, given to us by our founding fathers, who I am sure were sports fans too. Freedom of speech, freedom of seats and freedom of expression. My rights cannot be taken from me, even if I have to call Judge Judy to make sure justice is served. So, fans the next time you go to the Spectrum, please remember: I cheer, you cheer, we can all cheer from any chair.
Lauren Murakami is a senior in public relations. Comments or questions can be sent to lmurakami@cc.usu.edu.