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dragoneye776
03-04-2016, 11:07 AM
Hey, does anyone know the rumored/unofficial seating capacity for the student section for the UNC game? I think the undergraduate number is close to 1600 and the graduate number is close to 1000? I'm less sure about the graduate number.

UrinalCake
03-04-2016, 01:01 PM
There were 750 passes awarded at grad student campout this year. Not sure if there are a few extra spots for the Ushers themselves and their guests.

uh_no
03-04-2016, 01:55 PM
Hey, does anyone know the rumored/unofficial seating capacity for the student section for the UNC game? I think the undergraduate number is close to 1600 and the graduate number is close to 1000? I'm less sure about the graduate number.

when i was there the "official" ugrad number was 1200 (hence 100 tents x 12 students per tent)...but they could squeeze 1600+ in I'm told.

For grad students, they also flat out pack the sections...two deep on each step. I must imagine it's more than the number of ticket cards handed out...since everyone in their right mind with a card would go, and people still get in off walk up.

I'm not a student anymore, so cede to those knowledgeable!

Bluedog
03-04-2016, 07:15 PM
I heard up to 1800 when I was there for ugrads, but that was when they were on both sides. DWine would know...I think Wake-Duke 2005 was rumored to be the most crowded game during that time frame (yes, more than UNC). Depends on who the fire marshall is that day and if students decide to stand sideways. ;)

uh_no
03-04-2016, 07:30 PM
I heard up to 1800 when I was there for ugrads, but that was when they were on both sides. DWine would know...I think Wake-Duke 2005 was rumored to be the most crowded game during that time frame (yes, more than UNC). Depends on who the fire marshall is that day and if students decide to stand sideways. ;)

And how many cards they can get away with swiping backwards.

throatybeard
03-05-2016, 02:09 AM
Before there was Adele, we had Enya. If it got too packed in there, someone played Enya on a boombox behind the Fire Marshall, and 250 more spots would miraculously appear.

Henderson
03-05-2016, 10:43 AM
What was the student allocation when they reserved the bleachers on both sides of the court for them? As good as students can be sometimes, there was something special for opponents when they had to deal with rabid students in stereo, reverberating against themselves. Even the chants were more entertaining when there was that natural chant-response across the court. Green Shorts anyone?

SCMatt33
03-05-2016, 11:47 AM
I heard up to 1800 when I was there for ugrads, but that was when they were on both sides. DWine would know...I think Wake-Duke 2005 was rumored to be the most crowded game during that time frame (yes, more than UNC). Depends on who the fire marshall is that day and if students decide to stand sideways. ;)

It was also pretty soon after this that the fire marshals started cracking down on capacity. I was a freshman in 05-06, and by my sophomore year, they had forced everyone to back up a row in the first game of the season before allowing them to move back down, but with the caveat that they had to wristband every game simply as a means of tracking. Being in band, I don't know if the line monitors tried to game that system at all. It was around the same time that the fire marshals forced all of our percussion off of the floor. It even took some effort to convince them that you couldn't physically fit the drum set on the bleachers. If I had to guess, besides the overcrowding, the metal bleachers being installed (as this had only recently happened at the time) was a big reason for the crack down. IIRC, the wooden bleachers didn't extend nearly as far out towards the court as the metal ones and the new bleachers created more of a bottleneck for egress forcing people between the sideline bleachers and baseline bleachers.

BandAlum83
03-05-2016, 01:18 PM
What was the student allocation when they reserved the bleachers on both sides of the court for them? As good as students can be sometimes, there was something special for opponents when they had to deal with rabid students in stereo, reverberating against themselves. Even the chants were more entertaining when there was that natural chant-response across the court. Green Shorts anyone?

Wait.......the students don't surround the court anymore?????????

I do remember green shorts.

El_Diablo
03-05-2016, 03:00 PM
Wait...the students don't surround the court anymore?????????

I do remember green shorts.

Undergrads basically just have the "TV side" now (as of about 2010). Grad students have both end zones, one of which is shared with the band, and the corner of the non-TV side by the Duke bench.

uh_no
03-05-2016, 03:28 PM
Undergrads basically just have the "TV side" now (as of about 2010). Grad students have both end zones, one of which is shared with the band, and the corner of the non-TV side by the Duke bench.

2009-2010 season.

They didn't have it really before, either, as next to the band were cushy lazy-boy seats.....completely unfitting for downstairs at cameron.

blazindw
03-05-2016, 04:24 PM
The official capacity for Section 17 is 900 seated, ~1200 standing. Though, the record for number of people we've fit into the student section when I was there was 2100 (that included about 3 rows on the non-TV side behind the visitor's bench). That was for Duke-Wake in January 2004.

86devils
03-05-2016, 05:36 PM
What was the student allocation when they reserved the bleachers on both sides of the court for them? As good as students can be sometimes, there was something special for opponents when they had to deal with rabid students in stereo, reverberating against themselves. Even the chants were more entertaining when there was that natural chant-response across the court. Green Shorts anyone?

It seems to me the annexation of the student section began when the BOGgers were banned from "their spot" directly behind the visitors' bench. They earned that spot by always having guys in line to get their first and they were ferocious in hounding the visitors. I seem to recall that visiting teams had to hold their time-out huddles in the middle of the court just to be able to hear each other. Not just some of the time-outs, but every single one. The BOGgers also helped to keep the intensity high for all of the students. That being said, I did think they started to cross the line of what's acceptable for fan behavior, which is what led to their ouster. After that, it seems other chunks of seating were annexed for non-students: some behind the Duke bench for more family & VIPs, even more behind the visitors' bench for alumni who were less likely to harass the visiting team, etc. Then it seems like at some point - maybe the mid 90s? - that the students weren't filling up the student section (on tv you could clearly see empty bleachers in the corners) so Duke started selling tickets for those seats on a game-by-game basis. That eventually led to reclassifying the entire "benches side" of the bleachers as non-student seats. I agree it cuts down on the intensity of the atmosphere, but I suppose it's better than letting prime real estate sit empty.

-jk
03-05-2016, 05:57 PM
Students standing sideways in front of me. Can't fit shoulder to shoulder...

Packed!

-jk

BlueHeaven
03-05-2016, 07:35 PM
Well now everything makes more sense to me. When I was a freshman in 1985 we camped out, but my other three years, we just walked in. There was always room--because we had the whole lower bowl. You could always get a seat, maybe not the best seat, but you were there. Now the whole K-ville thing makes more sense.

orrnot
03-05-2016, 09:37 PM
That being said, I did think they started to cross the line of what's acceptable for fan behavior, which is what led to their ouster.

BOG was ousted from Duke, not Cameron.

86devils
03-05-2016, 11:41 PM
BOG was ousted from Duke, not Cameron.

Yes, but that took a few more years. They were ousted from their spot in 1985, I believe, though not from Cameron as a whole. They continued to sit together, as close to the visitors' bench as the Cameron officials allowed them, and be an active, if sometimes rowdy, part of the Cameron experience. According to a post I saw on a Duke Libraries site, BOG was ousted from campus in 1992 for alcohol violations. That doesn't really surprise me, as they were neither the first nor the last selective living group/frat to be tossed for such issues, but mostly because it seemed to me in the mid 80s their raison d'etre was partying, and in the 80s that meant alcohol. Lots of alcohol. At a minimum. That clearly set BOG on a collision course with the administration's desire to cut down on campus alcohol-fueled parties in order (to at least appear) to abide by the higher drinking age laws that took effect in the mid to late 80s.

Henderson
03-06-2016, 10:56 AM
Wasn't there also a preliminary step when students occupied both sides, but there were placed "Duke Ambassadors" (or something like that) right behind the opposing bench to discourage hurled vitriol? I vaguely remember something like that, with the ambassadors being female undergrads who wore corsages? Maybe I dreamed that, but if so it's not a very interesting dream.

devil84
03-06-2016, 11:10 AM
Wasn't there also a preliminary step when students occupied both sides, but there were placed "Duke Ambassadors" (or something like that) right behind the opposing bench to discourage hurled vitriol? I vaguely remember something like that, with the ambassadors being female undergrads who wore corsages? Maybe I dreamed that, but if so it's not a very interesting dream.

I don't remember a buffer zone being only female, and I certainly don't remember flowers in Cameron (except for senior nights). I thought it was a group of RAs and other students who had demonstrated good character, perhaps student government members, too? I think the administration implemented the buffer zone in the '83-'84 season, which was my senior year, though there may have been one my junior year. Alas, that was *ahem* a few years ago, so my memory is a little vague on which year it was implemented. I *am* certain there was a buffer zone while I was there, though.

86devils
03-06-2016, 11:18 AM
I don't remember the Ambassadors or corsages, but it sounds plausible given the administration's concern with image around that time. I do remember a lot of talk about the buffer zone behind the visitors' bench, particularly students complaining about its ever increasing size. Maybe the administration thought coeds in carnations were an effective buffer. Nonetheless, I agree with devil84 that the students who came to occupy the buffer zone were handpicked by school officials.

Edited because I didn't see devil84's post before I posted this.

Edouble
03-06-2016, 11:26 AM
I don't remember a buffer zone being only female, and I certainly don't remember flowers in Cameron (except for senior nights). I thought it was a group of RAs and other students who had demonstrated good character, perhaps student government members, too? I think the administration implemented the buffer zone in the '83-'84 season, which was my senior year, though there may have been one my junior year. Alas, that was *ahem* a few years ago, so my memory is a little vague on which year it was implemented. I *am* certain there was a buffer zone while I was there, though.

Can confirm that my male, grad student RA from House H was in the buffer zone in '98-'99.

El_Diablo
03-06-2016, 11:45 AM
Pan-Hel used to have a number of buffer zone tickets that they could distribute to sorority leaders.

blazindw
03-06-2016, 06:04 PM
Pan-Hel used to have a number of buffer zone tickets that they could distribute to sorority leaders.

Buffer Zone when I was in school was school administrators and student leaders. There were about 50 tickets that were up for grabs that student leaders could request and I believe it was a random draw for those tickets. Duke Student Government, Campus Council, Pan Hell and NPHC, among other bigger student groups, were all eligible to put their name in for those tickets.

MulletMan
03-06-2016, 06:26 PM
The official capacity for Section 17 is 900 seated, ~1200 standing. Though, the record for number of people we've fit into the student section when I was there was 2100 (that included about 3 rows on the non-TV side behind the visitor's bench). That was for Duke-Wake in January 2004.

I believe that we had roughly 1300 grads at that game. It was ridiculous. We let the last of the walk up line in and literally couldn't fit them anywhere. They got to sit upstairs.

blazindw
03-06-2016, 06:47 PM
I believe that we had roughly 1300 grads at that game. It was ridiculous. We let the last of the walk up line in and literally couldn't fit them anywhere. They got to sit upstairs.

Exactly what happened with the last of ours as well. The ticket office was furiously scrounging for extra spaces to put students. Real awesome of them to do that!

summerwind03
03-06-2016, 08:40 PM
Exactly what happened with the last of ours as well. The ticket office was furiously scrounging for extra spaces to put students. Real awesome of them to do that!

It always amazes me how many empty seats there are in Cameron. Even last night, it wasn't entirely full upstairs.

Newton_14
03-06-2016, 09:57 PM
It always amazes me how many empty seats there are in Cameron. Even last night, it wasn't entirely full upstairs.

Which sucks because I am on the Iron Duke Ticket Exchange List and did not get a ticket for the game.

uh_no
03-07-2016, 12:47 AM
Which sucks because I am on the Iron Duke Ticket Exchange List and did not get a ticket for the game.

yep. it's sad that not every ticket holder cares enough to ensure a duke fan is sitting in their seat if they can't make it.

summerwind03
03-07-2016, 02:23 AM
yep. it's sad that not every ticket holder cares enough to ensure a duke fan is sitting in their seat if they can't make it.

Yes. The problem is that people (or companies) don't turn in or sell their tickets.