The 5,000 seats allotted for the student section in Amon G. Carter Stadium were not enough at Saturday's season opener.
Director of Athletics Media Relations Mark Cohen said the student section had an unbelievable turnout, and he was very impressed with it. Cohen said he did not know if the department would do anything about the overflow in the student section.
Senior education major Jaclyn Balzer said she walked in when the game started and did not get to sit down the entire first half due to over-crowding in the student section.
“I was frustrated, we pay enough money to be able to sit at our own home games in the student section, instead we had to stand in the back,” Balzer said.
Balzer said she went to every home game for the past three years and never had an issue with finding a seat.
“This year it was a lot more crowded than years past, I think that has a lot to do with the new stadium and being in the Big 12,” Balzer said. “Usually you can walk into the game at anytime and basically sit wherever you want.”
Junior movement science major Jordan Chang said he experienced the same issue – he and his friends walked in 10 minutes prior to kick off and could only find seats in the upper section.
After the first quarter, Chang said he tried to move down to the student section to see the game better and had to "squish next to friends."
“We wanted to be down with all the students because in the upper section it was mostly families coming to watch the game, with a mixture of students who also couldn’t find lower seats,” Chang said.
“It will be interesting to see if all of the games are like this, or if it was just like this because it was the season opener,” Balzer said, “I do not want to worry about coming to the game early just to find a seat.”