Wren Baker Admits He Was 'Frustrated' With WVU Football's Student Section Attendance

The student section has been a problem at Milan Puskar Stadium for years. The noise and overall atmosphere are not where they need to be, and after implementing several attempts to fix the issue, WVU athletic director Wren Baker believes they have finally found the solution.

This year, WVU is moving to a first-come, first-served deal in terms of seating, where the first 2,200 students who enter will get to sit in the two lower-level sections (109, 110). The top sections (205-211) will not be opened up until the two lower levels fill, which will prevent the clusters of open seats down low, which was not only a bad look for TV, but bad for the atmosphere as well.

“It’s been very frustrating," Baker openly admitted. "I came in December of 2022, so the last couple of years to have even for big games — Backyard Brawl two years ago, Penn State last year — to have more requests and actually have to advance to the lottery system to award tickets and then game kicks off and you have a whole bunch of empty seats in that lower (section). That’s been a challenge. We’ve tried other ways to address it. We’ve just not been able to have a real solution. So when we sat down and talked about it this year, I liked that we rewarded our upperclassmen and people who had been here the longest, but they just weren’t showing up in that lower level like they needed to. We just feel like this is a better way to do it. I think it’s the best way to do it to create the atmosphere and environment that we’d like.”

According to the press release, "The student ticketing request, return and on-demand phase, as well as all other aspects of the student ticketing lottery process (including loyalty points) outside of game-day entry, remain in place."

West Virginia will kick off the season next Saturday against Robert Morris.

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