Recent Comments
I have had the wonderful privilege of attending VT for 4.5 years as an undergrad, and am 1.5 years complete of a 2 year Master's program. I was only able to attend one game my freshman year of 2007. Take a guess as to which game that was. VT-BC, October 25th, Thursday night home game against the #2 team in the country. I was completely soaked, yelling my lungs out the entire game, only to be devastated in the last two minutes.
How did that affect my team spirit?
Here's how:
Every year since, I have purchased season tickets. I have seen every VT-ECU game in person (including the blocked punt loss in Charlotte). I have been to every Charlotte ACC championship we have played in. I grudgingly had to sell my ticket to the Boise game because my Public Speaking professor wouldn't allow us to present our speeches early. However, I was able to attend a Fedex game this past season only to see us lose in dramatic fashion to Cincinnati.
My Virginia Tech passion is still very much alive. Through all of the heartbreak that I have witnessed, there has been so, so much more elation. I have made my mistakes (the worst moment of my football spectating career was walking out of the Nebraska game after the field goal put us down 15-10, leaving us with under two minutes to play to win the game), but I have also witnessed wonderful, amazing moments. David Wilson's kickoff return TD against GT on Thursday night, with Rock Carmichael getting the pick in the endzone to seal the win. The Richter scale event that was Miami last season (which my parents were lucky enough to attend as well). Two of the greatest moments in my life. Not sporting moments, but moments. Those are memories I will never forget, and will tell my children and grandchildren about.
Coming back full circle, the author of this op piece is someone I do not want to be associated with. Is she really a Hokie?
I am, I know that without a doubt. I am a Hokie for life.
Goodness, if the students at our school had even HALF of the passion for our program that you do, we would be so much better off.
It's students like you, petebuddywilson, that our university needs more of. After reading your comment, I strongly encourage you to buy season tickets next year so you don't have to worry about getting tickets through the lottery. Make sure to pick up your #BeatBama tickets as well.
It's meant to be for offensive material, or comments that are altogether not welcomed. Not for disagreements. I completely understand where you're coming from with this comment though, as for me, having a scoreboard decked out in all Hokiestone may be a bit much. But a little couldn't hurt it either. It's just dependent on how well it's integrated into the design. And as a civil engineering student, I will gladly admit that I have no idea as to what may be appealing visually from an architecture standpoint.
Don't know if they can. I recall one of the things that was mentioned when the Catholic 7 decided to bolt was that they were breaking away from D1a football schools. That reduces the risk of a conference partner switching conferences on them. They're basically getting back to what the original BE was founded for, basketball. UConn better pray the ACC or the BIG takes them in or else that jump from 1aa will look like a bad decision.
I agree. I started coming here in 2010 but I've been diehard since 1999. I love being able to go to Lane and seeing people throw paper airplanes annoys the crap out of me. Be loud, not annoying.
+1 for R.E.M. reference
Is that Joey Phillips as a child?
I wasn't saying get rid of HokieStone altogether. I love Hokie Stone. I have a giant piece of it on my desk (that may or may not have been stolen during the construction of a building...). My point was that most of the architecture going up around campus has been by-and-large uninspired. The new Snohetta-designed Center for the Arts building is a nice start. I just wish they would shake it up more, rather than value-engineer everything to the same look. So when people say "yeah clad the whole giant scoreboard in Hokie Stone!", my response is more rooted in the fact that from a design standpoint, cladding a large object like a scoreboard in stone is visually heavy. It would look funny. And if you don't believe me, thats fine, its only my opinion. And the -9 is fine, I knew it was coming. I felt comfortable with everyone here to just voice my opinion and let my voice be heard. I'm glad people disagree, its what makes the site great.
And sometimes it isnt even football. I remember hearing how much Butler, VCU, and GMU gained through the extra advertising and donations from alumni after their Final Four runs. Plus hearing how many more student applicants were received which helps the university grow. Success in sports brings in money through both the athletic department and the university
The problem is complacency. Most students who enrolled after 2008 have either become complacent or their expectations are ridiculous. We've been to 4 BCS bowls in 6 years. In my 4 years at Tech in the MVs, I got to go to Miami for the Orange Bowl twice, Atlanta for the Chick Fil A Bowl and New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. I consider myself to be pretty lucky. Does anybody think about how many bowl games UVA went to during that time? Here's a hint, it's about the only thing less than the number of fans at their Spring Game. Many students don't understand the value of a strong student section or they expect us to be undefeated every year because of our success. They don't understand what it means to go to a game, yell as loud as you can, not have a voice until the next Friday, and then do it all over again. It doesn't matter if it's a nooner or a Thursday night game, nothing but a change of attitude will get the students to change. I do see the possibility of some good coming out of the lack of a Thursday night game though. Students might actually appreciate them more and understand how exciting they are. Let's only hope that something will change because our student section is pretty poor at the moment across all sports.
Now that Thursday nights are gone is the next thing to go Enter Sandman because the entrance on the new video board will be too loud and too high def?
The times they are a change'n...
To many complainers in the world.
STOP KILLING HOKIE SPIRIT & TRADITIONS!
wow
I believe there are plans to put new buildings in all of the remaining prices fork lots, as Tech anymore only builds new buildings in existing parking lots. This would hide all of those old ugly buildings. They are also building something in the open spot next to Bishop Favrao.
LOL. No.
I meant moreso in general, a team that reduced seats could add them back if they made the playoffs. The NFL rule is, you set a capacity for the entire regular season.
She is clearly just a complete moron then.
Good point about removing the seats, but Jags in the playoffs?
+100000000000
And as a wahoo, she should be burned at the stake like a wahoo.
I'll go ahead and disrespect her. She does not attend the same school I do. This young woman is a wahoo.
The Jaguars have removed blocks of seats from ticket sales, effectively reducing the stadium capacity.
I'm sure in good years they could re-add them, and I think in the playoffs they could as well.
I don't want to disrespect this young woman; I'm really trying to keep an open mind about this, and consider both sides of the Thursday night game debate. But here's the thing:
I grew up about 1600 miles away from Blacksburg, but grew up a Hokie fan because my mom is a Blacksburg native and VT alum. I couldn't afford to go to VT as an out-of-state student, so I did my undergrad at a VERY small school that had no real sports teams to speak of. There were a couple club sports (Rugby and Soccer) and that was it. There was absolutely no sense of school spirit. I don't even know what our official school colors were.
I worked my ass off in undergrad so I could have the opportunity to come to VT for grad school and at least have a couple years to experience being apart of Hokie Nation (and earn an engineering degree from one of the best programs in the nation). And now that I'm here, its kind of disappointing to see so many students take this opportunity for granted.
I realize that cheering for sports teams isn't most student's top priority (and it shouldn't be, we're all here to learn) but you have the opportunity to be apart of something so cool and so unique in addition to the great education; I just don't get why you don't want to fully embrace that. Just having the ability to watch Division I sports is an incredible privilege, and as Hokies, we not only have that, but we also have an outstanding football program that plays in one of the best college football venues in the nation. To me, that opportunity is worth far more than the small inconveniences a Thursday game might induce.
I've only been to one night game at Lane--The Georgia Tech game this past year. I had to pay $50 bucks for a scalped ticket, and if I could go back and do it again, I would pay $100. I didn't get a ticket for the FSU game through the student lottery and overheard a kid in Lavery that day telling his friend "he didn't know if he was going to the game or not." It was slightly infuriating, but mostly just mind-blowing. WHY WOULDN'T YOU GO?
Maybe I'm biased because I, like many of you, have a love for sports that, at a minimum, borderlines the 'unhealthy' realm. But I think it's fair to say that night games at Lane are among the most awesome events a college student will ever experience, and being afforded the opportunity to be apart of that every year, to have an outlet to display passion and spirit for the school where you chose to matriculate on the national scale, isn't that worth more than a bus being crowded?
NFL Stadiums are haven't grown to collegiate size (~100K) for a couple reasons. They love to charge a whole lot more than college, which they would be able to do if there were more seats. Also, the NFL has a STUPID rule that if you don't sell out your stadium or come close to it, there will be a local TV blackout. Which means, not letting locals see the game on TV, which kills a fanbase and makes teams consider changing cities (San Diego and Jacksonville are common examples). Franchises have to avoid that situation at all costs, which means keeping the stadiums small.
This girl did not become a Tech fan until Spring of 2009 after finding out she was accepted.