I just found out this morning that my student season tickets this year will put me in North Endzone. Now I know that most fans would go crazy for seats there, but I found myself wishing I'd been placed in East again. The last two years, my tickets were high in East on the 45 yard line. I found that ideal for actually watching the game because it gave the best perspective while not sacrificing the energy of the crowd.
My question for you guys: Where do you prefer to sit (North, East, South, West, high, low, etc.), and why?
I've sat with my grandparents on the 50 yard line in West, about 8 rows from the field before and, while that was amazing to be so close to the action, I felt so removed from the energy (even though people were plenty excited as we crushed Miami in 2009). With little to no other students, everyone in that section just sat down the entire time except for a second or two during a big play. I've also been in the box seats above West and it was neat (and warm, late in November) but I still think that my ideal seats would be in the middle of the student section in East, as close to the 50 yard line as possible. Even if that means being in the upper gates.
Comments
the box seats
don't forget this night:
this night is one of the main reasons i became a hokie. gotta love my old branden ore jersey
The ticket office shit on our season tickets
Me and all my buddies got our student season tickets in section 21. That's not even a student section is it??
They Reseated this year
I think they put all students in the North Ednzone and East stands corner by section 1. My tickets are in section 1 as well which wasnt a student area last year.
new seating arrangement this year
Yea they changed everything up, the alumni season ticket holders got different seats too, but they moved the student seating to the far left side of the east stands so most of the students will pretty much be on the north stands side this year
My group got split up
Seriously, we signed up as a group but got placed in two different sections. Both in East, but separated by ~10 rows. I have actually never been in North for a game (four years now) but I do love the perspective in East.
Does it really matter where your ticket is?
In 5 years as a student, and one as an alumni pretending I was still a student, I've never sat in my seat, nor sat in the same seat twice. When I was a freshman I used to jump the rope and run into the North Endzone with a ticket in the South Endzone.
If I had to choose, I'd sit in the North Endzone, although there are benefits of sitting in the East. Something about those metal bleachers...
I get what you're saying, but I'm in a group with about fifteen of my friends so it's a little difficult for us all to"sneak"into a different section. I really just want to know if I'm the only one who thinks north is overrated. But that might be because I haven't been there is almost four seasons and we put up a very shitty performance against duke, so the excitement was low.
My heart wins over my brain here, so I'll take the North Endzone every single time. I love the intensity, noise, stomping on the bleachers, and a straight ahead view of points being scored. I think it's the best game day experience Lane has to offer. (If I wanted to watch a game to analyze and observe everything that was happening on the field, I'd watch alone and at home. I get sucked up by the atmosphere when I watch live.)
Back in 2001-04, seating was a free for all. The North Endzone was basically first come, first serve. Security has gotten more strict about denying people through gates nowhere near their seat. Also, it seems more and more fans are opposed to the idea of moving over, or squeezing in away from their ticketed seat.
honestly, i have a major problem squeezing in to make room for some dude who wants to hang with his "bro" .. buy the tix together if it's that big of a deal. it's tight enough as it is without having to share my two seat partially with someone else ... it's been tried on me several times and it ends up that i'm not sharing ANY of my seat, so the two bros are packed in like sardines and eventually get the picture and piss off.
to answer your question, the west is the best ... but i think i'm going to be in a box for the fsu game this year .. it'll probably be pretty damned cold too ... bet it rules even though i could see the removal from the atmosphere being a drawback
I get both sides of the argument. You paid for the ticket, so you shouldn't have to move if you don't want to. However, when people come into my section, I'll gladly make room as long as it's not inconveniencing those already there, and I wouldn't try to make it uncomfortable for anyone else.
Also, they shouldn't sell seats as much as two footprints to stand in.
Agreed
If people try to squeeze into my section it is usually because they want to be with their friends and make their game experience more enjoyable. If they are having fun, then I am probably having fun too. If one person tries to squeeze three people in then that is a little excessive.
I have learned my lesson this year with the re-seating. I sacrificed my view to be higher up in the East with an aisle seat. I have the seat directly on the aisle and the seat next to it so I could squeeze in a person or two in the event that an old buddy wants to meet in Blacksburg for a game that doesn't have season tix without causing too much trouble. But, I also made sure I was right next to the student section.
North
Is by far the best place to sit for most games. As Joe mentioned, the noise and intensity that reverberates throughout the North is unmatched. Mainly because its 90% current students and right behind the band. From '03 to '08 I spent about 80% of my games there. I would run back and forth like a drunken dipshit trying to get everyone more pumped (if that was possible). I even brought my Mom to a UVA game in the North where she asked "Does this whole town smell like whiskey on game days?"
However, as I further in years I find myself liking the East a lot. I get as close as I can to the student section there without being in it. last year I made the mistake of doing so and had to watch as two bros fought over the Phillies baseball team. Nonetheless, whenever Lane is buzzin it really doesnt matter where youre at. You have 66k+ family members going nuts with you.
Bro...
I am super stoked we're sitting in north endzone. Before I ever got to tech, every football game i attended was from an endzone seat, and it does little to affect your in game analysis of whats going on. If anything it enhances your experience because you get to see defenses from the quarterbacks point of view, and why certain plays are run a certain way, and all the little nuances/wrinkles we do to exploit said defenses. When we used to watch tape in highschool it was from an endzone perspective so we could really see and understand what the hell we were doing. so stop whining, get your drinking pants on, and get pumped cause we have the best seats in the house!
This is why I prefer Endonze seating
Well Said.
Seen it all (almost)
Obvious statement of the thread: it depends on what you're looking for.
I've had season tickets in the North End Zone, East Stands, and South End Zone Club ("da club"). I think NEZ was my favorite experience, as its best for a crazy crowd and insane cheering. Not the most comfortable place to watch a game, but I think I've aged out of the NEZ crowd. I feel like the SEZ is kind of the red-headed stepchild of Lane: an afterthought in the "where's your seat?" discussion. SEZ has lax police officers and a great view, but is definitely a calmer crowd that may or may not appreciate your level of intoxication (we've been blessed). Remind me to tell yall a story about a townie in the da club last year, but let's just say you run the risk of having to sit near Craigslist buyers who suck a lot. My opinion of East Stands is constantly changing because I've had such varied experiences there. I think my season tickets are there this year, so I guess we'll see. I will say I tend to get in fights when I sit in the East Stands because I've sat (stood) near some alarmingly ignorant people. I just attract douchenozzle, loudmouth undergrad boys - same happened on the rare occasion that I attended a football game at law school.
I'd like to take the time to preemptively warn everyone that if I see you throw a f*cking paper airplane in the East Stands, I WILL END YOU. Promise, not threat.
In conclusion, I dunno... but probably North End Zone.
4 years in North
I spent 4 years in the front row of the North Endzone. Yeah, I was in band and it was the best place to watch the game. You're down low seeing everything happen, from being there when the players warm up and chatting with them to seeing the High Techs doing their thing...yeah, it was good. Yeah, sitting on the sidelines allows you to see both sides of the play, but I really liked seeing the hole open up for David Wilson against GT in '10, watching Logan run right at us last year against Miami, and watching Danny Coale move his ass as fast as he can down the sideline against Nebraksa in '09. Many great memories came from the North Endzone and the best atmosphere is there. Plus, those metal bleachers are the BEST for jumping to Enter Sandman.
Been there
I've been in all four sections of Lane. Unlike just about everyone else here, regardless of the ambiance, I always preferred a West/East ticket to a North/South ticket.
My first games, even before being a student, were viewed from the West side. My student season tickets were always in East until my 5th year, when we got moved to NEZ, and I detested them. I always wanted to be able to have a view of the videoboard (decidedly tougher in NEZ, depending on where your seats are), and I treat the SEZ as if it exists exclusively for the Corps, and I will never watch a game from that vantage point.
That isn't to say that the NEZ isn't great, in terms of population and ambiance, it was just never for me. But damned if I don't appreciate the fuck out of what those kids are doing over there.
I was in the MVs in NEZ for three years and spent my senior year (refuse to call it fourth year) in east stands. I enjoyed NEZ more but found myself actually "watching" the game more from east stands. The students in NEZ are definitely crazier but were also the first students to leave if the game went south (see 2005 Miami). Most of the students around me in east stands stayed longer for that game than the students in NEZ, which were basically gone by middle Q3. Overall I noticed that the students in NEZ were louder and crazier when we were winning or it was close, but if things got grim, they were always the first to give up and go to the bar.
I prefer dedication over volume so I prefer east stands. Having both would be ideal, but that's a lot to ask of any team's fanbase.
I got garbage tickets this year.
Last year we were pretty low in the North Endzone and it was a bunch of fun. But being the football fanatic that I was, I was pissed when all the Sorority sitting groups would leave the game early regardless of score. I think that is a trend that is becoming all too common. Most of the NEZ left during the Clemson game (I forced my group to stay), they also left at halftime of the App State game, and I even noticed that some people left at halftime of the Miami game (when we were up 21-3, they sure did miss out). That bother's me as someone that considers themself a "true fan". In fact, there were a few times last year when people left early (when we were winning?????) and we started a "We're not fairweathers" chant.
East doesn't seem as bad in terms of fairweatherdom. Couple people will leave to no surprise, but it seems to stay packed for longer periods of time. I just love to watch from North because you get to see play's develope and holes open up (those were usually ignored by David Wilson). This year We're in section one and it seems our seats are like right next to the outside wall which is going to SUCK. But whatever, seeing a game in Lane > watching on TV anyday.
great thing about Lane is
that even the "bad" seats aren't all that bad from a view perspective. I sat on the very edge of Section 2 last year and had a blast. This year its Section 29/31 right on the 50 thanks to re-seating. I think they were student section seats last year and I'll do my best to uphold the enthusiasm.
North all the way
North stands is a party with a football game in front of you
South Endzone
Don't really have a choice here, but South Endzone isn't terrible
South Endzone
After 4 years of having to sit in the South Endzone which did have its perks and fun times, last year sitting in the North Endzone was so much better.
This is a loaded question
Your not supposed to sit down in Lane. I was fortunate during the last four years to experience the game from various places. I had season tickets in the low half of East for a year, and near the front in NEZ for 2 other years, and was also friends with many of the football players and often was able to get some of their family tickets for friends and family of mine, so I spent a fair amount of games in the front row of West with players family. As far as atmosphere goes there is absolutely no where that compares to North, and as far as being a drunk asshole cheering the team on without really being coherent enough to analyze all the finer thing of watching football it is defiantly the places to be. As far as view of the game and feeling like your on the field nothing beats being on the first row of the West Stands. It allows you to fully appreciate the amazing size of all the players and allows you to feel the emotion of the Tech sideline as the game progresses. Given the only full game I watched from these seats was last years Clemson game it can also be a little demoralizing. As far as South goes I pretend it doesn't exist, the only game I had the unfortunant experience to watch from there was the 2008 17 degree Duke game where my sisters and I almost froze to death. East has its perks too, but is also tends to be infiltrated more often by away fans which when you come back to shock Nebraska at the last second can have negative residual effects, but extremely gratifying when the fan has been talking shit the whole game.
But in conclusion I am going to have to agree that no matter where your designated standing area is, it is 1000% better to be at the game watching than at home. I am going to miss is immensely not being there for every game for the first time in 4 years; probably the worst thing about graduating. But I can tell you this: Nothing can keep me away from the Thursday night FSU game this year. Already requested my leave from work on Thursday and Friday, all I know is that game is going to be something special this year. #startjumping
EAST SIDE E'ERDAY!
Only been in east
Season tickets are in east and Ive never sat anywhere else. however, i will be trying to sneak into the NEZ for GT. hope it lives up to its expectations.
East side 4 life
East
for watchin'. Boxes are cool just for the food and booze but you can't have fun in them.