March 3, 2011 - 5:07pm
An open letter to faux Michigan fans
BY PHIL NUSSEL
- File Photo/Daily
Editor's Note: This open letter was written by Philip Nussel, an LSA alum from 1987, who is a former Daily sports editor and co-chairman of the University of Michigan Board for Student Publications. The Board oversees the Daily's finances, but has no oversight over editorial content.
There you were on Saturday, thousands of you, sitting among the 113,000 people who set a new all-time college football attendance record at Michigan Stadium. You cheered like the rest of us fans. You dressed like us. You sang “The Victors.” You enjoyed the win just like we did.
But why did you come? Why did you bother purchasing tickets and taking the day off from whatever else you do on Saturday afternoons?
I mean, you aren’t real Michigan fans and here’s why:
You didn’t even show up last November at the Ohio State game — a titanic rivalry game that mattered far more than last Saturday’s non-conference opener against a team Michigan never played before.
Truth be known, not showing up is forgivable. That’s just being a fair-weather fan.
But you faux fans are worse. Far worse. Not only did you not show up to support your team and your school, you sold them out to the highest bidder. You dumped your tickets on StubHub or some other Internet ticket source. For a profit.
The result?
You enabled thousands of Ohio State fans to buy your tickets and get into the Big House to jeer your own team, your own band, and us real Michigan fans. For us loyalists who exercised the privilege of using our season tickets, we had to endure the humiliation of not only losing to our biggest rival, again, but having to witness thousands of mindless Buckeye faithful rubbing it in – in our own stadium.
Frankly, I don’t understand why the Athletic Department tolerates this when it has a clear but basically unenforced policy that forbids ticket holders from scalping tickets. I don’t know why there is no grievance policy that would allow season ticket holders to file complaints about neighboring ticket holders who consistently sell their tickets to opposing fans. If you do it, you should lose your ticket privileges.
And I don’t know why some local entrepreneur (or the Athletic Department) can’t set up a members-only online ticket exchange that ensures Michigan fans can sell their tickets to Michigan fans, thereby keeping large quantities of opposing fans out of our stadium.
In any case, it’s beyond me to figure out why you’re back in your seats wearing maize and blue. Maybe you just don’t get it. Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you were short of cash and needed a couple extra bucks before last Thanksgiving. Maybe you’re really an Ohio State fan who holds your tickets just so you can see “The Game” every other year. (I actually knew some OSU fans who did this for many years).
Whoever you are, please do us a favor and do any of the following:
1) Use your tickets and come cheer for the Michigan Wolverines. All is forgiven and don’t sell us out again.
2) If you can’t make the game, give or sell your tickets to people you know are Michigan fans.
3) If you can’t find a Michigan fan to buy your tickets and you can’t make it to the game, then just don’t show up. Or just have a friend give them away at the gate. An empty seat is better than one occupied by the enemy.
4) If you can’t do any of the above, then forfeit your tickets. There are plenty more real Michigan fans who would appreciate the privilege of owning season tickets.
You obviously don’t appreciate this privilege. And there you still sit in Michigan Stadium masquerading as a Wolverine fan. Just remember something: last November you enabled an Ohio State fan to sit in your seat. You know who you are.
