Credit: Steve Schirra

While looking for something to do on Saturday, I had two thoughts go through my mind: I like football, and I like cheap beer. Putting the two together, I decided to venture to the stadium to see if the football team was really better this year. Well, everybody and their mom had the exact same idea.

But the little trip was not worth $1 draft beers and watching the Flashes keep their No. 1 spot in the MAC East. There was a problem that irritated not only me but also many other people standing in line outside of Dix Stadium.

Simply put, the stadium was not prepared to deal with the crowd of people. The lines and gates were not labeled clearly enough. Half of the people outside were on their phones talking to people who had already gotten inside. If it wasn’t for some random kid yelling that the line we were in was for people who had a ticket, I would have stayed and waited in the mile-long line forever. By the time we figured out where we were supposed to be, my friends and I came to the conclusion that going to Ray’s and watching the Ohio State game was a better option.

So congratulations, Kent State, you’ve managed to not only win games, but get people to show up and watch you play. I’m impressed, but what are you going to do next? Let’s hope the next move will be organizing the gates to be more efficient, because what I witnessed was ridiculous.

Gone are the days of walking up to a practically empty Dix Stadium and quickly flashing a Kent ID. On Saturday, while standing in the crowd, a mass of people started moving through an unmanned gate. It took nearly 10 minutes for the people working nearby to realize this was happening and shut the gate. Now, I know that the people who work at the stadium are not used to people actually coming to the games, but you can’t tell me that they don’t know leaving a gate open is a bad idea.

The rest of the games during the season will probably not have high attendance like the Homecoming game. But planning is in order to ensure that more people don’t avoid the games. Let students know that they should buy tickets ahead of time to avoid the long lines, and maybe hire some extra help to work the ticket booth. This is an easy problem to fix and only requires a small amount of attention.

The atmosphere outside of the game was something that we don’t expect around Kent State. There was real school spirit going on. Too bad many people gave up before even getting inside to see the Flashes come away with another win.

Jen Steer is a junior broadcast news major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].