Wheaton Warrenville selling season tickets to curb ‘saved’ seats
Wheaton Warrenville South High School officials will offer season ticket sales for two reserved sections at Red Grange Field for its football season this year for the first time.
The move will help parents of participants avoid getting shut out of games by giving them first dibs on the sales, officials said. The effort will be evaluated at season’s end.
“From what I understand, some problems arose with saving seats (last year) and this was the decision administrators at Wheaton Warrenville South have come up with,” said Erica Foreman, Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200’s director of public relations. “We’ll see how it goes this year.”
The system will be put to the test in the season opener against Glenbard West High School on Sunday, a game that will be aired on ESPN2.
Head coach Ron Muhitch said additional seating will be brought in for that game from area parks to accommodate the expected overflow.
For the rest of the season, the on-site bleachers have been split into five sections, with the center section and a section just south of that one dubbed the reserve section.
A portion of seats by the north end zone will remain open for students and all other sections are general admission. General admission tickets are still available on game day on a first-come, first-served basis. There are several price tiers available. For information, visit the Tiger PAWS website.
After initially offering the reserved seats to participants’ parents only, the school made tickets available to the general public Aug. 22.
The Tigers are coming off their second straight state championship and die-hard fans sometimes “reserved” small clusters of seating by saving them with blankets and other coverings, Foreman said.
Glenbard West received its own allotment for seats on the west side of the field.