Rumor on the street is that Purdue University is contemplating the idea of taking out MORE student seating at Mackey so that alumnus can be lazy and sit in the gold and black seats. If this happens, I burn Purdue to the ground. There has never been anything more frustrating for my fellow Boilerites ™ and I than the seating situation at the house Gene built. You look all around the country and see these amazing student sections that are on the side of the court and on TV the entirety of the game. The Izzone, the Cameron Crazy’s, and even Butler has a better student section seating situation. The only one that is worse than ours is probably Vanderbilts, which if you have seen it, is essentially a field house in which the students sit about 100 yards away from the court.
The Paint Crew claims to have the best student section in the country, which because of the location of the students, is about as true as a story out of Bill Clinton’s mouth. The Paint Crew can in fact get pretty rowdy, and Mackey at its best, is one of the loudest stadiums in the county. Ohio State’s point guard Aaron Kraft was actually quoted as saying playing at Purdue his freshman year was the loudest environment he had been a part of. I think a change in seating would do wonders for our student section, as we would have much more students close to the court and that would just make our stadium that much better. The possibility of being closer to the court would increase attendance, thus increase our money, thus our team, thus we will win every championship for the rest of ever.
Another suggestion that I have for Paint Crew is a change in color of the shirts. Thought black is extremely “intimidating”, see Oakland Raiders, most of the others game attendees wear black as well, so the shirts do not stick out. The Gene Pool wore gold shirts, which was much more prevalent and made the students look more unified.
I know I’m bitching a lot, but I finally have a public forum to discuss my disappointment, and I would like to believe I am not alone in these feelings.
