Who's proud to be a Chippewa?

The student section as it appeared right before the 3rd quarter started.

Am I dissapointed in CMU's lack of school spirit among current undergraduates? Yes, but it was fairly cold out. Nevertheless, I'm utterly dissapointed in this whole thursday-night-in-november-game thing...what a waste of money on CMU's part. Thursday night game + 35 degrees outside = Nobody shows up. I picked up CM Life and was enraged to read that the attendance for last night's game was 12,127. WTF? What a joke, here's the front sideline. Do you see 12,000 people? Neither do I, and the stands on the back sideline (the ones we're on) had wayyyy less. I know I'm showing pictures from later on in the night, but the opening kickoff didn't look much different.

Start of the 3rd quarter

This looks more like the crowd we drag in for the preview show at the end of band camp. Not only was nobody there, but from a marching band perspective, it was much too cold. Coming from a clarinetist, bitter cold temperatures like this kill a clarinet player's hands, because we have to cut the fingers off our gloves, so we can actually play our instrument. (We have the most complex keys) You bump your hand into something and it feels like you took an axe to it. Performing pregame looked ridiculous, with steam bellowing out of the mouth of every Marching Chip as we marched. Another sad note from a perfromer's standpoint, it's nice to have an audience when you do halftime. It's too bad more folks weren't there to hear Moves Like Jagger, and Salute to America's Finest.
And the fact that the game was on ESPN, every quarter was drawn out as far as possible, with a commercial break for every 4 minutes of play or so. Game time was 7:30, and was done at about 11:30; I just wanted to go home and sleep before my 8a.m. friday class.

A night like this is one I would rather forget. I always question/badger/interrogate anyone who says they're not coming back to the Marching Chips next season. Now I see some reasons why. When people say it's time consuming, I then ask them in return "what else are you going to do?" Okay, well I could've done a ton of productive things on a thursday night; instead I was at a football game where the marching band outnumbered the number of normal fans there. It was quite an epiphany I had thursday night, as I parked my car and walked back to my residence hall...For the first time since 2007, I asked myself..."Why am I doing this?"

So that's what it takes to get my 14-year-old perspective back out, a thursday night game in November. I'm glad I don't feel that way at all today. I will be with the marching band all four years (or more) and loving all of it. Plus, I did actually enjoy myself last night, cheering and talking with my clarinet friends. (Whenever someone got injured, me & another guy compared their number to that of someone on the Maple Leafs or Red Wings...e.g. When #28 went down, "Oooooh there goes Rafalski!")
I do have to warn CMU though, while I'll be at the home games, if you keep up this 3-8 style record and pay ESPNU to televise your thursday night games in november, this is what your games will look like. All your students will be at Wayside, Bluegrass, Tallgrass, Main St, the bars in downtown, and keeping warm in the dorms. There's no incentive for them to go if they can't even tailgate...great job Central, you killed your fanbase.

A kickoff in the 4th quarter

It'd be a shame if CMU-Toledo next friday is like this. That's the game where we do our student show, which includes *Forget* You by Cee-Lo Green, and Party Rock Anthem!!! Sure hope there's more than just the bleachers to perform to, because they don't pay much attention.....lol that'd look kind of stupid, a marching band just playing to an empty stadium. IT COULD HAPPEN.