Column:

Fans disrespect each other while camping out for Nebraska tickets

By Mark Levitt

Published Sept. 25, 2008

Camping out for tickets is a foreign idea to most Missouri fans. They have rarely had a team worth the sore back and poor night's sleep. But this year is different. This football season is special. So when Mike Alden played the part of Willy Wonka on Monday and made 200 golden tickets available for the Missouri-Nebraska game in Lincoln, students lined the ticket office like never before.

Through no fault of their own, they need more practice.

I arrived at Mizzou Arena at 6:45 a.m. Monday morning to get in line and claim my ticket. I was genuinely surprised to see about 90 people already waiting, some of which were just climbing out of a tent to greet the day. The tickets didn't go on sale until 8, which gave me ample time to realize that most of my fellow eager ticket-seekers missed the Sunday school class when they covered the commandments of camping out. Luckily I was paying attention that day.

Thou shall not study in line. People are well aware they will be standing with nothing to do for more than an hour. They are tired and stressed about getting their tickets. They don't need Mark Twain and John Locke reminding them from all angles that they have homework to do. Sports should be a break from school.

Thou shall not cut in line. I do not care who you are, which of your friends have been in line for weeks or why you needed extra sleep. Shut up and go stand at the end. A two-ticket allotment per student combined with an excessive amount of second-grade butting almost resulted in people who woke up earlier and spent more time in line than others not getting tickets.

Thou shall not ignore the insults of others when one does cut the line. If you are going to cheat people, at least take their catcalls like a man. Students, who knew people would be ticked off as they went to join their friends in the middle of the line, walked with a purpose. Some listened to their iPods and acted like they could not hear the "Get to the end of the line!" yells coming from those of us worried about unfairly losing our tickets. Others preferred the cell phone strategy. As they would walk past the angry onlookers, they would pretend to be deep in conversation. Miraculously, whoever was on the other end of the line had to go as soon as the person reached their saved spot in line.

Thou shall not buy an extra ticket for one's personal profit. These 200 tickets were an opportunity for Missouri students to witness their team play in a place where they have not won in 30 years. It is despicable that a high number of people bought a second ticket for the sole purpose of selling it to make money. The poor person who waited for two hours in line is now deprived of the same opportunity we are benefiting from. Part of this is the athletic department's fault. With a limited amount of tickets, students should not have had the option to buy for more than themselves. More than likely, our one golden section will have stains of red because the greedy people who are selling their extra ticket on StubHub won't know whether a Missouri or Nebraska fan is paying them.

Hopefully Missouri athletics will give fans another game worth camping out for in the near future. So now that the rules are clear for the future, we can concentrate on hoping the Tigers trip to Lincoln is as sweet as Charlie's was to the Chocolate Factory.