Football fans in aisles cause trouble at game

Marc Gutowski had been waiting to see the big Pitt-Notre Dame football game.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘… Marc Gutowski had been waiting to see the big Pitt-Notre Dame football game.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The season-ticket holder even got to Heinz Field an hour and a half before kickoff to claim his seat.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Despite that, he didn’t get to see much of the game.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Gutowski had picked up standing-room tickets for a few of his friends, so a few minutes before kickoff, he left his girlfriend, Melanie Linn, to save his seat and went down to the gates to give them their tickets.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “It was one of the games I really wanted to go see,” he said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ He thought it was going to take about five minutes to bring the tickets to his friends and return to his seat, but when he tried to return to his seat, the guards told him that he couldn’t.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “As soon as we left to go to the bathroom or concessions, you gave up your seat,” Gutowski said the guards told him.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ This was not a new problem, according to Carol Sprague, Pitt’s senior associate athletics’ director.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ At Heinz Field, there are three student-seating levels on the 100, 200 and 500 levels. And most students want to sit as close as they can, so more students than there are seats for go down to the lower seating areas, she said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “It was not a surprise,” she said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ When Pitt played in Three Rivers Stadium, they had similar problems, she said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “What happened at the game was not unlike what happened at Three Rivers Stadium games when it was sold out,” she said. “It just took longer [to deal with it] because of the magnitude of it.”

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney added that this type of problem also occurred when Pitt played in Panther Stadium years ago.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Because of the lack of seating in the lower areas on Sunday, students began to stand in the aisles. The fire marshal then asked for the aisles to be cleared because they were violating fire-safety regulations.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Around kickoff time, a Heinz Field official called Delaney to report the problem, this was the first complaint Delaney has gotten from stadium officials in the three years Pitt has played there.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ When he arrived, he looked at the lower seating levels, which were completely filled. He added that the seating sections were so packed that they appeared to be one large section.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ According to Delaney, Pitt’s team was driving the ball toward the students’ end of the field. Since the students were very excited, he did not want to send his officers down into the large crowd. After the play, the officers went down and told students to get out of the aisles.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ They did not care if more than one student was standing in front of each seat, so long as no one was in the aisles, Delaney added.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “We weren’t doing a headcount,” he said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ While they cleared the aisles, guards did not let any students in, Sprague said.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ According to Gutowski, a guard told him Pitt had oversold the student section by 3,000 seats.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Sprague and Delaney could not confirm this.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Even though Gutowski already had a seat, and Linn had saved it for him, he couldn’t go back in.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “It basically ruined the whole game,” Linn said. “It was just a bad situation all around.”

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Though he said he didn’t blame the event staff, he said Pitt should have done a better job managing the ticket sales.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “We took the brunt of it,” he said. “I paid money for the tickets, I expected to see the game.”

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ By halftime, the guards let him and others back into the stands.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “It’s kind of crappy,” he said. “The only two scores, I missed.”

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ “They’d never do this to a section where they paid real money,” he added. “It shows how much the University really cares for us.”

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ When people left their seats during halftime, they got their hands stamped so they could return to their seats without any trouble. According to Delaney, there were no major problems after they began stamping people’s hands.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Delaney said he had heard that some students were separated from their friends at the game, but he was interested in keeping everyone safe.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ He added that there were many students who did arrive more than an hour before the game, and then there were students who arrived much later who went to sit closer to the field. He and his officers could not tell which students were which.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ According to Sprague, after the game, a group looks into all of the complaints they receive. There was not more than a normal amount of complaints filed from people sitting in the non-student sections.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The committee is, however, going to look into possible solutions for this problem so that it does not occur during the next home game, which is in about two weeks.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Delaney suggested a few solutions: stamping students’ hands in the’ beginning of the game, giving students bracelets or assigning seats, so that students coming late in the game would not take the seats of students who came early.