Many longtime University of Nebraska softball season ticket holders will not be sitting in their usual places when the regional tournament opens at Bowlin Stadium this weekend. Tamera and Larry, who have spent the past three years attending nearly every Husker home game with hundreds of other season ticket holders, were among those moved out of their reserved seats.
The university assigned regional seats by donor status, with the more money given to Husker Athletics determining a fan’s place in line. That left dozens of season ticket holders in a lower tier and pushed some into general admission if they could get in at all. Tamera and Larry will be in general admission for the regional, a shift that has sparked frustration among fans who thought years of support would count for more than it did.
Tamera said the regular routine at Bowlin Stadium has been part of the appeal. “We come to our little number 11, of course I have to watch the number its 7 and 8. We love our seats,” she said, adding that fans have shown up through cold weather and kept supporting the team anyway. “You come with your blankets, multiple blankets, anything to stay warm. But we were here, it doesn’t matter we are still going to support them,” she said.
Her reaction to the new seating plan was blunt. “It feels like (expletive), are you kidding me? It’s horrible,” Tamera said. She said the process made longtime supporters feel ignored. “I don’t feel like any of us feel like people listen, no loyalty whatsoever to the ticket holders,” she said. “That’s where season ticket holders loyalty gets you. Yeah, hope for a bleacher.” She added, “We’re here. And they don’t care, good luck getting a seat in the bleachers.”
The athletic department said the ticket process was designed to spread access as widely as possible. Tyler Kai said every season ticket holder had the chance to buy tickets and that about a thousand were still left for public sale. He called the tiered on-sale “the most equitable way we can think of allowing every fan an equal opportunity to be able to get into the venue.” Kai also said the NCAA requires 350 tickets to be set aside for road teams traveling to Lincoln this weekend.
The dispute lands in a postseason setting where demand is high and seating is limited, and it exposes the gap between a loyalty-based fan base and a donor-based allocation system. For supporters like Tamera and Larry, the issue is not whether they can still get into the stadium. It is that years of attending game after game did not protect the seats they thought were theirs.
Tamera said she and Larry are still looking forward to Nebraska hosting a regional at Bowlin Stadium, and they will keep supporting the Huskers if the team advances to a Super Regional. Even so, she said, the move to general admission has made this weekend feel different. “It would be tough for us to sit in that grass for so long. Pull up a blade of grass, let’s enjoy that for four hours,” she said.
