I as well was not very happy about the lack of students attending. Who ever said there were a lot of empty seats must have been watching a different game on TV because I have a panorama of after halftime showing EVERY section is full to the top with very very few empty seats and a half empty student section. Remember it was a CODE GREEN game so the dark colors tends to be thought of as blue on TV.

There were MAYBE 3,000 students there at the start of the game. Probably a better estimate is 2,500-2,750. The area above the band was virtually empty. It only started to become remotely populated later with people who had standing room tickets realizing why not go sit there. Same could be said for a small area around the ISU fans. I am sure the non-standing room tickets that were available Friday were returned tickets from the opposing team from their 500 allotment. By noon Friday there was a facebook post from athletics that there was a limited number of Standing Room tix available. That maybe was not the best wording to get people to by tickets. They were trying to be politically correct I am sure but if they know that many students were not attending it could have been worded that seats will be available for anyone with standing room tickets above the student section. People are not going to get excited about just SRO tickets when they know the only place they can stand is in the corners with a big pole in their view. If they know that they will be able to sit above the students then they will be MUCH more likely to sell.

Having gone to all but a very small hand full of games since the dome opened as a HS kid, Student, Grad Student, now alum and season ticket holder there is one thing that holds true every year. No matter how good the team is the student section will be full the first 2 games no matter who they are playing. After that there is a gradual decline in attendance for I am sure various reasons with the exception of a rivalry game. Instead of just having a flat 4,000 tix every game they maybe need to look at a gradual decline in tix for the students as the season goes on. Or make them get their tickets by the Thursday or Friday a week ahead so they have the whole weekend to announce that X amount of tickets will be available on Tuesday and make them GA tickets starting at field level next to the band in Section 10. Work your way up with how many actual seats are available. If people purchased SRO tickets for that game they have Sunday and Monday to exchange for GA first (must be some way of doing it electronically). Gives incentive to buy a ticket anyway in the hopes you have first dibs on a GA ticket. Late arriving students are also the ones who are not going to stick around anyway, so rope off the area above those GA seats so students can sit above those GA seats. If you want a better seat as a student then get their earlier.

I am sure there are other outside the box ways to do it. But something needs to change because it is the same thing every year and with how high the demand is for tickets lots of adjustments need to be made across the board because if people know their are seats available they will sell and sell quickly.