HENNN-RRRYYY!!! HENNN-RRRYYY!!!

Ok, so maybe not everything changes. For a few minutes in the first half, Section 28 was speaking with one voice again. But it's Henry Burris, everybody hates him. Then everybody turned their attention back to the feud growing in the stands. Trust me it was much more exciting than anything happening on the field. In the end, no punches were thrown - much to every one's disappointment. By the way, the security at Taylor Field is an absolute joke. Are the 70 year old man and the 260 pounder (no muscle in sight) standing in front of Section 28 really going to be able to get up into the crowd to stop anything?

Yes, for the first time in 2 years I sat in what used to be the University Section for a Rider game. And some of it was the same. The drunks were still there. And some people were still befriending those around them for no real reason. It was still a place you could shout at fellow fans, "Didn't they teach you to play volleyball in prison," when the beach ball got tossed into the crowd.

But there was serious, open hostility between people in the section - which created an us against each other vibe, instead of us against them. And there were kids, kids all over the place - it was like Vegas in there. I'm not sure what the parents who took their young children into that section were thinking. But I guess that's the crowd that sits there now. No longer is it students and rowdies only.

The changes in Section 28 and the poor play on the field were not the real problems though (but seriously, if that's what the offence is going to look like for the Riders this year, could be a long year). No, the real problem was outside the stadium. For the first time ever in team history your game ticket now has a bar code on it and every ticket was getting scanned on the way into the stadium. Now this is fine for a sold out Springsteen show at MSG but this was a preseason game at Taylor Field! Wow, talk about delusions of grandeur.

And as if the absurdity of this ticket scanning wasn't bad enough (seriously were there a lot of bogus tickets being passed off at Rider games? sometimes I wonder who this team thinks it is) - on the East side of the stadium there were approximately 6 people scanning tickets with scanners that either weren't working or the people were just totally over matched by the task of scanning tickets. Here's the deal - there were literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people outside standing in lines to get into the stadium - and this was after the game had already started. I have been going to Rider games for a long time and I have never seen a fiasco that bad while trying to get in - not even on Labour Day. There are two gates on the East side and both were open - but only half of each gate was open, which basically means that there was one fully functioning gate (and I use that term very loosely - they were woefully under prepared to deal with that situation. as we finally got in to Taylor Field, they finally abandoned the scanners and went back to ripping tickets).

I'm not lying or exaggerating when I say that it was waaaaay easier to get into the Rolling Stones concert than it was to get into the preseason Rider game tonight. We literally waited 20 minutes to get in and there were people who were waiting a lot longer than us. I think it's safe to say there were people who showed up at the beginning of the game and didn't even get into the stadium until the 2nd quarter.

Make of all this what you will. I just felt that I should pass this information along. Be prepared for long lines at Rider games this year. Get there early.