Student Government members unanimously passed a bill on Tuesday to expand the football student section during their weekly general assembly meeting.
The bill comes as Texas was ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press on Sept. 16, marking the Longhorns’ on top for the first time since 2008. After its win against Mississippi State, the Longhorns sit at No. 2.
SG created the bill to address growing concerns about the limited capacity of the student section at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium after students reported being denied entry to this season’s home games. The bill recommends teams switch benches, which would allow students to sit behind the home team, or extend the student section to the north end zone, including the upper deck.
Emma Daniell, representing the College of Liberal Arts, said she introduced a petition that supports the expansion bill.
“I’ve been in touch with some other student body presidents from SEC schools, as well as other student ticket holders at those schools, to see what their student sections are like and get some more ideas for Texas Athletics,” Daniell said.
Daniell also proposed a bill revising the Big Ticket to clarify terms and conditions for ticket holders, including the tickets sold and amount available to claim before each game. The assembly will vote on her bill on Oct. 8.
According to the bill, Texas Athletics sells more Big Tickets than there are seats in the student section. The bill cites other SEC schools with successful student sections, including the University of Alabama, Louisiana State University and the University of Georgia, that only sell the number of student passes that align with available seating.
The proposal also seeks to penalize season ticket holders who do not use their tickets. This would be similar to the Big Ticket strike system, where students get up to two strikes for not using their claimed tickets before they are banned from claiming tickets for the remainder of the season.
“If there are going to be strikes against your Big Ticket, the alumni will get them if they’re selling,” Daniell said. “Currently, Texas Athletics only discourages that they (do not resell), and at one point, (Texas Athletics said) they had to buy back over 4,000 tickets from scalpers that could have gone to other people.”
University-wide representatives Anthony Nguyen and Matheo Hayek presented another bill advocating for organizational seating in the student section. The proposal suggests three of the seven sections be designated for student organizations that apply to receive a block of seats. The University would choose the organizations through an application and interview process based on the GPA and philanthropy involvement of the groups.
Many assembly members had concerns about the bill, including the inclusion of GPA requirements, quantifying community service and the domination of Greek life organizations. SG will further discuss the bill at next week’s assembly meeting.
“Everyone should be able to enjoy (watching) UT football destroy another team,” Nguyen said. “This legislation is not official. It’s not the immediate start of anything, but it is coinciding talks and finding out how we’re going to face this issue.”
