At the beginning of the 2004 football season, a tragedy occurred that quickly became the catalyst for tightened security and many other changes regarding the way football events are handled.
“Many students seemed to have believed that the increased security and new rules were only for that season,” Thomas Stafford, vice chancellor of student affairs, said. “But it was only the beginning of the new policies.”
Stafford said he has been receiving a lot of complaints about the fairground parking lot from not only alumni, but also fans of both the home and visiting teams.
“Safety is still a big concern,” Stafford said. “Many people have commented on the actions and language being shown by the people in those lots and several have said they will not come to home games because that is not the environment they want their children to experience.”
The major concerns raised at the meeting included alcohol abuse, fan behavior and pass-outs, which is the ability for a ticket holder to freely leave and re-enter the stadium during the course of the game.
“The image the Wolfpack family has at the moment doesn’t look the way we would like it to,” Paul Cousins, director of student conduct, said.
One major change discussed at the meeting will be the addition of more seating behind the north field goal, a change resulting in approximately 3,000 more seats, raising the seating capacity of the stadium to slightly over 60,000 seats.
The construction of the new seats is scheduled to be completed before next year’s football season and will require a greater police presence.
“Everything comes out of the Athletic Department’s budget,” Ed Stack, the associate director of the Wolfpack Club, said. “We have 80-90 officers at each game, which costs the Athletic Department around $35 – 40,000 per home game.”
Stack said students aren’t the only problem at the games.
“We want to try to change the culture image that is associated with our football games. People look at us and associate us with drinking and rowdiness,” Stack said. “Some universities use us as an example of what not to do at athletic events.”
Tom Younce, director of public safety, shared experiences and solutions from his time spent at East Carolina.
He said games at ECU included volunteers that patrol the tailgating areas, no pass-outs and sweeping the lots 15 minutes prior to kick off.
Some suggested solutions to the issues were to assign parking spots in the fairground lot, have alcohol-free zones and to step up security at the gates, all of which will be further discussed at future meetings.