An end to the era of discourtesy for fans at UT
by Tony Basilio
Talk to anyone who has attended a UT basketball game in the Tommy Bowl, and chances are that they will have had at least one bad experience with an usher. It’s one of the unfortunate legacies of former Athletic Director Doug Dickey’s regime that the fans who actually attend games are often treated with disdain, if not outright contempt.
But times, they are a-changin’, as evidenced by the recent appointment of Tiffany Carpenter as director of public relations for the entire athletic department. For the record, this is the first time any Division One university has employed a PR director for its athletics program. If the following example is any indication, she arrived just in time.
I received an e-mail one week after the Lady Vol-Connecticut basketball game at TB. The individual sending me the missive has been a friend of mine for over a decade, and I can testify to its veracity:
Tony,
I thought you might could help. My fiancé and I went to the Lady Vol vs UConn game last week. My fiancé is a paraplegic. We were given Lady Vol season tickets from a friend. All year long we have parked in the garage closest to gate 10 at the stadium. We use the handicap parking in there. On this night UT police would not let us park there. We ended up parking at the end of the fraternity row. Once we got in the arena the game had started. The handicap spots to watch the game are not great unless you are behind the goal due to the great architecture work done. We went around the arena looking for a place to watch the game. After making one lap we noticed a lot of ushers sitting in seats designated for handicap seating. Then we saw two young ladies sitting in handicap at section 302. I figured they did not have a ticket and I was going up to offer my mid court seats to them so my fiancé and I could have a place to watch the game. I went and asked the ladies and the usher intercepted me and asked to see my tickets. When I showed him my tickets he said “that me and my fiancé needed to go sit in them. “Then I pointed to her and said “that we would love to use those seats, but there is know way for her to get to them.” I told him these ladies could use these tickets. He got angry and said “these were his granddaughters and one of them has a sore ankle.” He then said “we needed to find somewhere else to sit.” The next day the lady who gave me the season tickets called the Lady Vols because their family has eight season tickets. The Lady Vols said they would investigate and get back with her on this matter. There has not been a call back. The sad thing about this is that my fiancé, a huge b-ball fan whose uncle is the athletic director at an SEC school, was injured fighting wild fires in Oregon 2001. She was a helicopter Manager for the federal government and put her life on the line for 5 years. The University of Tennessee did not do a whole lot to make her night enjoyable and as big of fans as we are of the Volunteers it will be hard to get her to go again. The usher in question was a jerk to us and something needs to be done about it!
Unlike many such instances past, this story ends with the promise of justice being served. I forwarded the email to Carpenter, and she sent the following response only 20 minutes after receiving my first correspondence.
Hi Tony,
Thanks for sending this to me. We definitely need to know about these incidents. I’ve forwarded a copy to Mike Hamilton and event management. Feel free to pass anything like this on to me in the future.
I just spoke with the guy who sent this e-mail. He gave me a description of the usher and the section he was located in, so I’m going to talk to event management tomorrow to figure out who the usher was. He is also going to have his fiancé call me tomorrow.
I know you get a lot of calls regarding usher problems. If you wouldn’t mind, could you ask fans that have an incident with an usher to get the usher’s name from their name badge. It would help us identify the people who do not need to be ushers, and hopefully keep incidents like this from happening again.
Thanks for all your help. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Some good came from this egregious incident. Carpenter discussed with my friend’s fiancé ways to better serve handicap spectators. She also vowed that this type of behavior toward paying customers will no longer be tolerated at the Tommy Bowl.
Carpenter surely has her work cut out for her; she is trying to change the culture in a place where contemptuous behavior toward paying customers has not only been tolerated, but seemingly encouraged. Hers is a daunting task.
But let’s credit new AD Mike Hamilton for setting change in motion by bringing Ms. Carpenter aboard. I, for one, pledge to aid her in the fight to take back the Tommy Bowl! Will you join me?
Tune in and talk sports with "The Tony Basilio Show" each weekday from 3-6 p.m. on the network (670 WMTY-AM, 850 WKVL-AM, 1140 WLOD-AM, 1290 WATO-AM, or 1400 WGAP-AM).
February 19, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 8
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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