The best way to reward student loyalty to the basketball team is by giving them the best seats based on their seniority. MSU athletics and the Student Alumni Foundation must have missed that memo.
The Student Alumni Foundation's new Izzone ticket swindle goes as follows: If a student wants to be in the Izzone this season, they have until Sept. 22 to apply. Applicants are placed in a lottery for lower bowl seating, and if they're lucky, are asked to camp out on Munn field. Three-year members of the once esteemed and feared Izzone are being asked to sleep on the ground for their season tickets. Rewarding, isn't it?
Only after the camp out is complete will seniority come into play. The longer you've held basketball season tickets, the higher a priority you are. As if that process wasn't completely unnecessary and convoluted enough, the tickets are now in voucher form, similar to football seating. First come, first served. Tell a four-year season ticket holder that a lottery winner has a better seat than them because the seasoned fan showed up a bit late, and then wonder how excited they now are to be in the Izzone.
This means that every student seat is an Izzone seat. A 950-member esteemed congregation of MSU's best basketball fans is now all-inclusive. There will now be 1,550 Izzone members in the lower bowl, and about 1,500 more in the upper bowl. "It makes more sense to have one big section," said Izzone co-director Frankie Orlando. Sure it does. But when the cost is loyalty, fans lose in the trade off.
Technically, this change is legal. Nevertheless, this move damages an implied contract between the fans, the MSU athletics department and the Student Alumni Foundation. Those wanting to come out and support their team now walk away with empty promises. Fans should be mad about this and they have every right. To the fans who have been in it for the long haul, you now have less than one week before your fate is decided by a needless lottery.
The process by which fans progressed to the lower bowl worked fine. Everyone knew what they were getting and they had the chance to build their seniority. This system should be restored by the university. There's no need to fix a system that is not broken.
We believe there's one person who can put a stop to this madness and save the basketball program from alienating their own fans - the namesake, Tom Izzo himself. If his name is attached to this abomination, he needs to work for current Izzone members and rectify a shortsighted situation. They are there because of the program you built, coach. Last time we checked, the Izzone was at its most powerful from 1998-2001. To no detriment of the current fans, it is not any coincidence that MSU went to three Final Fours in those years. Take the die-hards out of the Izzone and you're lancing out the heart of your own cheering section. At least think about it, coach.
You don't need to be in the Izzone with a Spartan "S" painted on your chest or wearing a green and white clown wig to cheer for the Spartans. The system is not flawed, the Izzone is strong enough as it is, and to shake up the apple cart on this for monetary gain - there's the rub - is nothing short of disrespectful to fans.
