Sep 7, 2013; Lubbock, TX, USA; A general overview of the new video board at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
4. You’ve had a bleacher bench collapse under you during a football game.
If you have not experienced a football game at the Jones in at least twenty years, you may not understand the phenomenon of the broken bleachers. To outsiders, it appears that Tech students are intentionally breaking the bleachers as part of some mischievous plot to cause damage.
However, almost anyone who has sat in the student section post-Spyke Dykes has probably experienced the collapse of a bleacher bench that snaps during a game changing moment and you know that the broken bleachers are a result of jubilation, and not intentional stadium destruction.
On the east side of the stadium, most of the seats are bleachers upon which fans, and especially the students stand throughout the game. Why people don’t just stand on the cement rather than the benches is unknown, but try convincing a group of rowdy fans to be logical and see what happens. I DARE YOU!
During the most climatic moments of the game, it is in the nature of most fans to jump up and down in celebration. This is especially true on in the student section where the joints are young and elastic unlike the iron knees and bronze hips that populate the west side of the stadium. You can hear the metal joints grinding as the fans on the West side slowly rise to cheer in crucial moments.
The students, and many of the rowdy fans on the east side jump on the bleachers throughout the game. And when the defense needs a big third down stop, or the offense makes a huge play, or any other time the Red Raiders do something exciting, the jubilant jumpers often unintentionally break the bleachers.
What is often misunderstood, especially by fans of other schools that like to put down Tech fans by saying, “They even destroy their own stadium, that’s how low class they are.” is that the students don’t intend to break the bleachers. In fact, it is a beating when your bench breaks because you have to stand on the concrete making it virtually impossible to see the field over those in front of you.
This year, every seat and bench in Jones Stadium is brand new, hopefully the benches on the east side and in the south end zone are more sturdy and have been reinforced. And hopefully this year’s team gives fans more reasons to jump around on them.