Big K-ville groups unruly, hard to manage

The Krzyzewskiville walk-up line large-group policy needs to change. Last Wednesday during the walk-up line for the Michigan State University game, there was a group of 100-plus students that wreaked havoc on K-ville. This group not only turned a grill into a massive bonfire, but it also left tons of trash littered about their area of K-ville. On top of that, many of them were belligerently drunk and flat out unruly. This caused a huge hold-up during the admission process, and caused many of us normal Duke Basketball fans to miss more of the warm-up period than what normally would have happened. Also, the normal rules for large groups (that is, half of the group’s members have to be in K-ville in order to get their spot in line) were clearly not enforced, since there is no possible way that they had the required 50 or more people in K-ville before my group signed up at 3:30 p.m.; they maybe had 20-25. Most of the students in the group barely waited in line, yet still got in before many rule-abiding groups, merely because a group that large is too hard to manage.

This large group is not in the spirit of K-ville and Duke Basketball. The walk-up line is meant to provide a fair, safe and orderly way of getting into Cameron, all three of which were broken by this extremely large group. Also, the size of this group encourages belligerence, which goes against everything Coach K wants in the Cameron Crazies. Being a Cameron Crazie is about being passionate about Duke Basketball, not getting hammered and passing out during the game.

All of these problems can be fixed with few tweaks to the walk-up line policy. First off, there should be a maximum size for a large group. Limiting large groups to, say, 30 or 40 people would make them much easier to manage and would speed up the admission into Cameron. Secondly, any group that trashes their area of K-ville should be made to clean it up before being allowed into the game. Finally, any group that is belligerent, uncooperative or unruly should be sent to the back of the line or not allowed into Cameron at all. Making these few changes will greatly improve the walk-up line experience for everyone and make K-ville have a more enjoyable, positive atmosphere.

David Reynolds

Trinity ’12