New York City is supposed to be the center of the basketball world with the Mecca being Madison Square Garden the “world’s greatest arena” or at least thats what used to be.
St. John’s is celebrating its 100 year anniversary this season and has made it quite a memorable one so far for the fans. First from raising season ticket prices blackmailing boosters to ante up a larger donations or get bumped from your seats in favor of a larger donor. Student ticket prices were raised from $10 to $15 for Big East games this season as well.
The attendance at games has been on a steady decline for years now and its only getting worse and worse as the current season goes on. In addition to the sliding attendance the fans have been treated with poor play, questionable coaching, and an overall feeling of embarrassment of being dressed in St. John’s apparel.
Johnny Jungle was officially created before this season to help bring back the pride and tradition in this once proud program however the school continues to do its best to cancel out our efforts.
St. John’s ticket office has tried its best to break up students from gathering together in what every school in America calls the “Student Section” as they have scattered students behind each basket of Madison Square Garden instead of giving the students a block of tickets to sit together.
In my years as a student at St. John’s I’ve had my fair share of run ins with the ushers of MSG but there was a certain understanding between the students and suits. They were doing their job and we were just trying to enjoy the game and we co-existed in peace. This season I was appalled at the actions of Madison Square Garden.
First let me paint the picture of what MSG looks like for a St. John’s game. ( …. ) If you can’t tell by my dynamic drawing that is the arena thats only filled up about 25% for every game.
St. John’s students who try their best to make the Garden a “Jungle” stand up and cheer like every other college across the country but this year its different. MSG has told students to sit or be ejected from the game.
The students who were sitting court side in their designated seats earlier this season sat in a group of 20 or so was told to sit down or face ejection. A few bold students remained standing while others complied with the wishes of MSG. The 15 rows behind the students were empty, the first 25 rows to the right of them were completely empty(I could literally lay down 4 times over in one row 2 rows behind the basket) yet the usher said the students were obstructing the view of the court. I find this so hard to believe because there was no one in the arena and I also moved to various seats in the arena and not once was my view obstructed. The students regained their confidence to stand again only to be harassed by ushers the minute they stood up. Select students were given a piece of paper stating this was a warning and as soon as it was apparent they were finished reading the paper they were physically dragged out of their seat and forced out of the arena for simply standing.
Not only was this distracting for the students but for everyone in that half of the arena drawing chants by older St. John’s fans to “Leave the students alone”
In the latest debacle a dozen or so students were ejected from the St. John’s game against Georgetown in a game where St. John’s didn’t score a field goal until 4 minutes left in the first half. How do you kick out a fan let alone 12 or more who’s team is losing by 30+ in the first half for standing and cheering for their team without using vulgar or obscene language?
Madison Square Garden is continuing to make a mockery of New York and the game of basketball. The so little St. John’s students have to cheer about MSG deprives them of what every college in America gets to do and that is stand up during games. I’d like to see Cameron or Chapel Hill ushers prohibit standing at games and see what would happen. I tried to contact MSG security and ticket office and no one was available for comment on the matter. I tried to contact the SJU ticket office too after sitting through 15 min of computer prompted questions I finally received a never ending ringing phone in which no one picked up which is seemingly befitting to the situation.
Maybe St. John’s should just drop their basketball program since they don’t care about their fans and make it so difficult for students to want to go to games with poor marketing, expensive tickets, and lackluster play.
For the students who still attend the games I say this,
Get up, Stand up, Stand up for your rights
Get up, Stand up, Don’t give up the fight!
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