Ryan Bautista | Head Editor & Layout Manager
September 19, 2025
Three. Two. One. Yes! The football team actually won! C’mon Loud Crowd, let’s celebrate!
…Where is everybody?
Everyone knows about the problem with our Loud Crowd during football games. The one where the said Loud Crowd doesn’t exist past halftime. Whether it is going to In-n-Out, being bored by the game itself, or already standing there for 90 minutes before the game even starts, the student section trickles down beginning with the start of the second quarter and barely exists at halftime. Well, ASB has had enough of it just being them at the end of the games and has rolled out a new end-of-game system that will hopefully fix this pressing problem.
Starting this season, at the end of home football games, students can scan QR codes using the heavily encouraged 5Star app as they leave. When a student does this, they could receive gift cards, free In-n-Out, and the opportunity to become Fan of the Game. But that’s not all! If students have stayed till the end and scanned out for the last two home games and do so for Homecoming, they will receive a front-of-the-line pass for all the rides at the Homecoming dance. However, the question remains, will students think it is worth it?
While it isn’t an ideal situation for ASB, they are addressing the problem of people leaving early and trying to change it. Junior Tommy Suckiel, who is a part of ASB, stated how “they will make it a success,” and even though it “may take incentives,” students will want to stay at the football game for the entire night. He views the early results of the checkout system as a success and is hopeful that it will lead to new ideas that will keep students engaged on Friday nights.
Unfortunately, not all students share this perspective. They view ASB’s decision as an act of desperation to keep people at the football game. A main flaw students have discovered revolves around the passes for the Homecoming dance and how impractical it really is. If one student gets a pass and then goes to Homecoming with a group of friends or a date, they will still wait in line because they are the only one with the pass. An entire group of friends would have to stay until the end of the games to make it worth it, and that leads to another issue. Staying until the end of three games is a long time to dedicate to standing in the student section, and sometimes people can’t afford that kind of time. But, let’s say, hypothetically, a group of friends stays until the end of all three games and gets their front-of-the-line pass. What is stopping them from going on the ride, then immediately going back on again and again, holding up the line itself? And if someone puts a restriction on the pass, then the students who stayed could feel cheated because that wasn’t what they dedicated 12 hours of their life to, considering students must stay from 5:15 till 9:15 for three games.
Empty stands towards the end of football games is a problem ASB has had to contend with for the last few years. While this is a potential solution if students buy into it fully, some students have their own ideas for how to keep the Loud Crowd entertained. Senior Timothee Bernardin-Bigle described how a “cultural change needs to happen” regarding football games. If there are “new traditions that can keep people not just engaged on the game itself, then they will force themselves to stay for the reward.” By having more events and fun traditions throughout the game, people will have more things to focus on other than just the football game. If that happens, then the Loud Crowd can stay loud throughout all of Friday night.
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