OUR VIEW: Hurd doing the best with what they’ve got

There has been a lot of criticism from students about how well they think the Hurd did or did not organize the camp out for the BYU football game – see the letter to the editor on the right.

Though few people on campus will agree to what the best method is to organizing the ticket lines to big games, almost everyone at USU agrees the current system is not ideal.

Before we go into what the best format is or is not, we at The Statesman think the Hurd leadership deserves a shoutout for the hard work they’ve done in a infantile football culture: Except for the past few years, USU football has been so irrelevant that few die-hard fans would even consider camping out for tickets. We think the Hurd, though its leadership vastly underestimated how many students would attend the camp out, handled the event relatively well.

That being said, when tons of students are upset at the current system, it’s a good indication that the system needs to be changed.

There are dozens of so-called “better” ideas out there, ranging from turning the camp out into a separate pep rally, to enforcing a leave-for-class-and-lose-your-spot type of line at the stadium, to getting rid of an institutionalized camp out altogether and letting a line form by itself.

Regardless, the die-hard fans are going to get their front-row seats because the close view is that important to them. Organizing a campout to please these self-appointed few is a wasted opportunity.

But the casual fan who just wants to show up and say they were at “that one sportball game” may be discouraged from attending the event at all when they are told 2,200 people showed up to claim a spot in a line that’ll get them into the stands a half hour before the gates even open. It makes it even worse when their friends say things like “Oh, it’s sold out. You’ll have to sit in the freezing weather for at least 12 hours to even get the cheap seats.”

Do we at The Statesman have all the answers? Depending on who you ask, probably not. But we do think a solution exists that will anger relatively few students who pay the athletic fees, compared to the vast majority we’ve come in contact with who pay those same fees and have the same right to support their team.