Fizer is joining the crew here as a writer at CloneChronicles. Feel free to read and comment on his articles while I slave away at my studies. :) - CC

This diary is in response to a supremely bad article I read in the Iowa State Daily this morning.  The article, which was written by Ryan Frederick detailed his take on the vast emptiness of the balcony area of the ISU Student Section.  This came as a response to a piece on Tuesday in which A.D. Pollard expressed his disappointment with the empty seats.

Frederick starts the article off by saying, "Mr. Pollard, you've disappointed us."  Wait, what?  Who is he disappointing?  I am certainly not disappointed that our A.D. is upset about us not coming to the games we bought tickets for.  Next he begins to rant about how the university exists because of the students.  Really Ryan, I had no idea?

In paragraph three he begins delving into the problem of ticket pricing.  In one sentence he claims many of the "more loyal" Iowa State students are sitting in non-student seats.  I was at the game yesterday Ryan and I'm pretty sure the loyal fans were sitting around me in Cyclone Alley.  

Perhaps the worst part of the article was this gem, "Who is scheduling these ball games, anyway? At 12:30 on a Saturday, more than a few college students, for whatever reason, are hardly out of bed yet. It can be reasonably assumed that most of the capacity crowds in NCAA basketball are playing in primetime, rather than in the midst of the lunch hour."  Hey Ryan, before you write this stuff how about you check out some other team's schedules.  Kansas, Duke, and many other powerhouse teams play the same amount of 12:30 home games as us.  Don't try to put that one on Pollard too.  

Later he claims that incentives should be given to students who attend games instead of threatening to take away a portion of our tickets.  No examples of such possible incentives are given, however.

Jamie Pollard couldn't have been more right.  This is a simple problem.  Students, if you bought tickets go to the games!  If you aren't going to the games, don't get tickets next year.  It is embarrassing how many students elect not to go to the games despite having tickets.  That is like slapping the team in the face.  

I'll close this with a statement by Frederick that needs no comment,
"There’s nothing more exhilarating than Brian (sp) Petersen bringing the ball down the floor..."