Getting good seats requires extra effort

It’s dark. And it’s drizzling. And it’s 5:45 a.m. But as MU juniors Andy Butler and Drew Minert get in Butler’s 1997 Nissan Altima to set out on their mission, none of that matters. It’s football season.

In a race against time Monday morning, Butler and Minert speed through empty Columbia neighborhoods to pick up fellow Tiger fans Mike Moreau and Jennah Koch. Football season tickets go on sale at 8 a.m. and because the best tickets are sold on a first-come basis, they want to be at the head of the line when the doors open at Mizzou Arena.

“We knew from camping out our first two years that we’d have to be there by six if we wanted to be first,” Butler said. “We got off to a late start, so we had to rush to get there in time.”

When the foursome finally reach Mizzou Arena, it is still dark and still drizzling.

But to the glee of the quickly expanding group, more friends meet them in the parking lot and see there is no line.

“We knew that if we showed up five or 10 minutes later we wouldn’t have been first,” Butler said. “It makes you feel good knowing you were the most dedicated fans at Mizzou.”

And so at 6 a.m. the wait outside the doors of the Mizzou Ticket Office begins. And as the minutes to 8 a.m. slowly creep by, the line quickly grows.

Behind the leaders in line, a group of seven well-prepared friends huddle together on a flimsy, 8-by-10 tarp, using frisbees and kickballs as pillows while they wait. They are slightly annoyed at not being first.

“But at least we’re not wet,” MU senior Ben Bohannon says. “Actually, the tarp’s a little wet.”

Despite the poor conditions, the guys compressed together on the tarp joked around and stayed positive.

“Our morale is high right now,” Bohannon said. “We’re headed into the season full steam ahead.”

At 6:50 a.m. the bright orange sun slowly begins to rise above Hearnes Center. A few rows down the line, sit MU juniors Becky Forst and Meghan Ivie, talking quietly as they munch on their McDonald’s breakfast.

“We’ve brought some friends’ IDs, so we’re waiting in line for them, too,” Forst says. “We were sitting in the 14th row last year, around the 45-yard line.

We wanna be even closer this year.”

To do that, they had to wake up even earlier than the year before.

“You’re thinking at six in the morning, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Ivie said. “But then you think about the tailgates, the barbecues, getting hyped for the games, and it’s worth it.”

An hour later, the line curls down the cement walkway and toward the street. The faces of the early risers began to darken with annoyance.

But at 7:56 a.m., it finally happens. The big glass doors open and the crowd of more than 200 flood through the arena entrance in an awkward trance. For many, it is the first steps taken in nearly two hours.

Inside the arena, four ticket booths open, and with that comes the rush of fans who had been patiently waiting all morning in the darkened drizzle.

Then came the big payoff. And suddenly, the early morning sacrifices seemed moot.

“It’s all part of college, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, sitting in line with friends,” Moreau said proudly as he clutched his newly acquired 12th row tickets. “But the best part is the results, getting these tickets. I mean, why else would we get up this early?”