Season Ticket Renewals: Ohio & Permanent Seat Cushions

Often a happy day for many Michigan fans, my football season ticket renewal arrived in the mail today.   Of note:

* The first paragraph closes with this sentence:  “In addition, we host Minnesota in the battle for the Little Brown Jug and the regular season culminates with ‘The Game’ against Ohio.”

Beat Ohio.  

They are made of vinyl and measure 17” wide, 9.5” deep, and two inches high—which is a tad loftier than your run-of-the-mill seat cushion. 

Purists will cringe.  While they don’t have the ugly chairback, it does change the aesthetics of the stadium when the place isn’t full.  I noticed this at Spartan Stadium and elsewhere – you first see the smattering of chairbacks, then the rest of the stadium. 

I definitely recommend bringing a seat cushion—it makes the game more comfortable, that extra height over the person in front of you makes a difference, and it “saves” your spot during the never-ending battle to hold your butt’s turf inside the cramped rows.  $32 is a tad steep.

6 Comments

  • JACK BRIEGEL

    I AGREE WITH YOU MIKE BUT IN SECTION “SOME PEOPLE” THINK IT’S TRADITION TO STAND THE ENTIRE GAME. IT’S GREAT UNLESS YOUR 75 YEARS OLD AND CAN’T WAIT FOR A TIME OUT TO SIT DOWN. THEN I GUESS IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A SOFT SEAT.

  • Ace

    I’d love to see a kid in the student section try to get one of those seat cushions.

    Speaking of which, I actually have no problem with them — I don’t see anything too wrong with a few more block ‘M’s in the stadium. It could even help show off the fact that we have a ridiculously large amount of season ticket holders. Plus, saving your seat really would be nice — nothing worse than getting to your reserved spot only to have to talk to the guy who vehemently believes he’s in a seat that’s actually located two sections away (aka The Thing That Happens Every Time We Play State).

  • guanxi

    It’s an idea only someone you could only think of while sitting in an office (or a suite). In my long experience, there’s not enough width for a typical adult’s end and shoulders on those wonderful Wolverine benches (the worst seats in any venue outside of high schools, I’d like to add) and so there is much shifting and squeezing and we never actually sit on our numbered seats. If someone has a fixed cushion, they will disrupt decades of seating tradition.

  • frank

    Hey UM fans!
    I work for the company providing these seats for the UM fans and just happen to stumble upon this link and some of the comments above. I can certainly appreciate some of the feedback; here are some positives that come with our product.
    1) proceeds supports UM athletics as you probabaly imagined
    2) its a fundraiser for UM Army ROTC, which is an incredible group to support
    3) 1000’s of additonal BLUE and MAIZE M’s in the stadium
    4) Maize and Blue throughout the stadium
    5) not having to drag a seat from home or from you car to the stadium
    6) defines your reserved space in the stadium
    7) our product is a simple amenity to your loyal fans. not everyone will like it, but its an option and the athletic staff work hard to make fans game day the best.
    8) the seats are not for students, only season ticket holders
    9) water proof cushion, just in case it happens to rain or snow in Ann Arbor :)
    We hope the fans enjoy the amenity for this season and thank you for your support.
    Good luck to all the Michigan fans this season, it should be a great one!
    Be sure to check us out at http://www.wolverineseats.com to get your seat if you have not.
    thanks!

  • Wm Wilson

    One of the major points Bill Martin made, to “sell” the $1/3 billion dollar stadium renovation project he was touting 5 or 6 years ago, was that it would allow substantial widening of the average seat. I think they were widened 1/2″ or, at most 1″. Typical real estate developer: lots of talk, short on follow through.