new seating assignments at Gill next year.

I'm curious if some of you people that knock season ticket holders for not showing up are interested in buying those seats. Is there a big logjam of people clamoring to get in there? Yes, a lot of those people have been season ticket holders for decades. They've paid tens of thousands of dollars to Oregon State for the right to sit there over the years. The laws of nature mean that as we age, getting around becomes more difficult and health becomes an ever increasing concern. The benefit of getting old is that you've had plenty of time to earn money, and you get to spend more of that money on things you enjoy, rather than things you need. Imagine a 1947 alum, WWII vet, who is in his mid 90's and has been a season ticket holder for 50 years. Life isn't exactly easy for him, but he loves his Beavs, so he sends $7500 a year to Oregon State for a couple of seats in the third row behind the bench, because his vision isn't the best. Now, he can't make it to every game, but when he goes, sitting elsewhere isn't an option because he can't climb stairs that well and wouldn't be able to see great from further back. You're telling me that guy should lose his seats that he's been forking checks over for fifty years because his kids or grandkids are too busy to bring him to every game?

Now, if Oregon State wants to set up some sort of resale venue, where STHs can select games they won't come to in order to sell the tickets back to OSU for them to resell on a single game basis to other fans (or perhaps as SQUAD inventory), I'm fine with that. But I think it'd be horrible decision to move people who paid for the right to use the seat as they wish (give it to kids, sell it on StubHub, whatever).

As for upgrading the seating....change is inevitable. At some point, those seats were going to have to be replaced. I'm not super tall, but big enough that on the occasions I've been lucky enough to sit down there, my knees are pressed into the back of the seat in front of me. My guess is that this is going to affect people far less than they think. The biggest donors are probably already in the best seats and aren't going to suddenly want to move to a different seat. There's probably some people with aisle seats that will get squeezed into the middle, and maybe a handful that will no longer have seats on the lower level due to the reduction in seats that will have to move upstairs, and for those people I would hope there would be some sort of "sorry we had to move you, here's a 20% discount on your donation for the next season" or some other compensatory perk.

This is sort of a "who cares" topic. Those who want to see hoops will see hoops. The best seats in Gill are actually above the walk way. If I don't use my seats it's my $ and how it looks on TV is truly irrelevant.

But, I'll disagree on the motivation portion of the post above. Paying more had very little to do with motivation to attend. It means the buyer most likely has more discretionary income. Hence, probably has more discretion on whether to use the tix.

The more people pay tends to mean they have money to burn. Ever see the guy/family with multiple expensive cars that sit? The 2nd home at the beach that's not a shack but in the $500k+ range that is empty 11 months of the year.

A lot of those empty seats belong to long time season ticket holders/families and in some cases it's just another one of their "toys". But, again... if I want to see a game I'll get a seat. Those people are not hindering anyone. And their money is in the coffers. The AD doesn't give a rats arse about the view on the TV screen.

I'm sure it is an inconvenience to anyone having to be moved - but improving the seating does sound like a positive. I have to imagine there are still enough quality seats for them to be moved to acceptable location.

They made the change to show students section... more enthusiastic... camera placement now can pickup broadcast team without hand held. It had ZERO to do with empty seats. The "dam" can be spotty for certain games.