I heard a few folks on WTKA this morning claim the lines for the new bathrooms in the Big House were horrendous on Saturday and one of the callers blamed it on the removal of the troughs. Beyond the extended delays, I hear this spawned tactics like the Spartan Stadium-esque entry through the exit door:
Back in May I feared this might happen:
For me, anytime I have to leave my stadium seat I’ve got one mission: return as quickly as I can. Unless they expanded the size of the bathrooms there’s no way you can achieve the throughput the troughs provide with stalls or urinals with dividers.
What was your experience Saturday?
P.S. on PINS: I got a tweet from a gent who says he his dad weren’t able to get the commemorative pins that were being passed out. Did they run out?
11 Comments
Paul
I left my seat in row A in section 28 at the end of the first half and got back in time for the Michigan band show. It was fine for me
shep
I thought it wasn't bad at all. I go to the one around section 30, below the stadium. If you just keep walking through, you can get to an open urinal real easily. If you're going to the ones above (behind the section), you're probably going to have to wait a while. I'm sure some people naturally went there because it's the closest. That doesn't mean that its faster.
JZ1
It is like anything else. Plan accordingly. if you expect to go to the bathroom during halftime with 30,000 other guys, you are going to have to wait any place you go. If you leave with a couple of minutes left in the half, no problem at all.
Yostal
My nightmare was trying to get in to Section 18. We lined up at 2:45 figuring we still had plenty of time, but it took nearly 35 minutes in line, in a line that extended back past the lines for 17, 16, or 15, to get in to Section 18. It did not make any sense, and I am worried that the sections by the four towers will now be very hard to get in to because there's just so much more traffic. I am willing to chalk this one up to first game issues, but if it keeps happening, I will definitely be letting Guest Services know.
Rash
I had an experience last season where people were entering through the exit doors, and I noticed people doing it before the game on Saturday as well. This was BEFORE the game when the lines weren't even that bad yet. Some people just lack general respect and courtesy, but that's beside the point here. I agree that lines have gotten worse since the removal of the troughs.
I also did not get a pin when I entered the stadium on Saturday. Whomever was supposed to be handing them out at my entry gate was not there when I entered. I was able to purchase one at MDen on Sunday for $5, however.
Benjamin
I had quick lines for both my trips to the restroom, despite morons entering via the exit.
I was also able to collect my pin. When we entered the gate the person handing out the pins was off to the side reloading her from stash. Fortunately we remembered and sought her out. The pins are great, unlike most gameday giveaways. As for the "commemorative" water bottles, I was glad they were also recyclable. :)
Ryan
Before the game started I was waiting for a long time in line for the bathroom. While in line, a gentleman told us that the bathroom below us had no line. I was able to walk right into the bathroom on the lower level.
Guest
I sat in section 13, and the line for the bathroom was indeed horrendous. The line was probably a hundred men long and moved really, really slowly. I was in line at the end of the first half, and didn't get back to my seat until 5 minutes into the third quarter.
The way I see it, there's two problems:
1) There's more women's bathrooms than mens. This may just be a perception issue, but seeing the hundred man long line at section 13's bathroom, I headed elsewhere looking for another. I made it past section 1 without seeing another mens bathroom. In that space in between, there were 4 (empty) womens bathrooms.
The ratio of genders visiting the Big House is not 1:1, so even if there were an equal number of womens bathrooms to mens (which was not my experience) that is still not sufficient.
2) I don't think the above ground bathrooms should exist. It may seem counter intuitive to champion removing bathrooms when I was just complaining there weren't enough, but the above ground bathrooms are far too small to handle the lines they produce. I imagine if I was to go back to the stadium I would know that the underground bathrooms are (still) better than the above ground ones, but at the first game of the new stadium I didn't know that – I thought they had fixed this issue.
What happened was there were equally long lines at the underground and above ground bathrooms, except one had the capacity to handle the line and the other really, really didnt.
Jason W
I sat in section 1, row 6. I waited until the players left the field before I made my venture up the stairs and to the bathroom. The line was long, but moved fast. There were actually an empty row of urinals near the exit that no one realized were there until we were leaving the bathroom. I made it back to my seat well before the second half started. Bathroom win in my opinion.
The port-a-potties on the golf course are another story.
Lew
My wife and kids and I didn't get a commemorative pin. :-( We walked in the gates at about 2:50PM.
I was, however, able to check out the bathrooms on the club level early in the 3rd quarter. No wait at all at that point. They piped in the radio broadcast and the acoutstics were so good in there that Brando and Beckmann sounded like they were in the stall next to me, which was kind of odd. But in a good way.
Andy
West Side… If you're on the west side, (never ventured to the east) I HIGHLY recommend going down the stairs between section 21 and 22. It's really not clear that is a bathroom, but the bathroom down the stairs is ENORMOUS and had no wait at all. Seriously, there were probably 50-70 urinals and tons of stalls. I almost hate to share it, but that's definitely the way to go.