Derek van der Merwe, deputy director of athletics and chief operating office, said a policy is being finalized that would eliminate the open access that students have to go freely in and out of the football stadium.

The policy has already taken effect for basketball games.

Another new policy that will take effect next year is scanning tickets. That will give Central Michigan athletics a more accurate number more quickly.

“We’ll be able to have those in a much quicker way,” said CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke. “Scanning is important to us. We’ll have a much truer number in more timely way.”

Heeke still is not sure how those numbers will be calculated in the announced attendance though. Last season CMU counted free distributed tickets to the community whether they went to the game or not.

“We’ll have to evaluate how we want to report that attendance number,” Heeke said. “When we’ve done these things in the past people have come. We’ve not changed the way we’ve done our business. With schedule and team not performing as well as they have in the past, people are not showing up. Its been a little bit of a change for us.”

Heeke also cited students trading student ID’s and making false ID’s for a reason to bring in the scanners.

“We want to assure our student body are the ones coming and being rewarded,” Heeke said. “We know there’s a lot of ID trading, and that there has been false ID’s produced in the past from recent graduates.

“We’ll be able to buckle down.”

The scanning policy will replace the clicker counts and ticket stub collect that CMU has used.

“There’s certainly room for error there,” Heeke said of the clicker counting. “But I think we’ve been pretty accurate. We’ve done the best we can.”

Heading into this year’s final CMU game against Toledo, the attendance is just over the benchmark at 15,929. CMU must have more than 11,250 people file through the gates Friday night to avoid falling under that number.

If that does happen, the Chippewas would still be a division one program, unless they do not reach 15,000 next year. It will be easier to get people at games with Michigan State University, Navy and Western Michigan University coming to Mount Pleasant next season.

“I have every expectation that we’ll make that,” said CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke. “I have no doubt we meet 15,000 next year.”

If CMU matches its attendance from last week, that will put the figure at 15,168. It would be the third-smallest attendance in Kelly/Shorts Stadium history, which goes back to 1972. CMU has gone under 15,000 in a season only once in 2003.

Heeke went on to say he expects four games next year to be near or at full capacity, the three games listed above as well as the Homecoming matchup.

The official attendance number was 12,127 for the Ohio game Thursday. Weather.com has Friday’s high in Mount Pleasant at 46 degrees with a 20-percent chance of rain.

MAC Competition

Every other year the Eastern Michigan University football team makes its attendance mark. This year its only averaging 4,266 people with a much-improved team from last year. But last year it got a 15,805 average attendance.

EMU athletics and ticket office both declined to comment when asked how there were jumps from year to year in the attendance to make the NCAA guidelines.

Even though Heeke said he is confident CMU will make the 15,000 attendance requirement next year, he isn’t sure how strong the NCAA is at enforcing that rule.

“I haven’t heard of the NCAA penalizing a school for being under — although schools don’t let it come to that,” Heeke said.
He said schools can get very “imaginative” with the ways they hit the requirement. For example, buying tickets themselves.

“Regardless of how we did this year, we knew we’d have challenges with attendance,” Heeke said. “Weeknight games are challenges for our conference. They are not good for attendance. It’s extremely hard to build a fan base with two, three straight away games. And the mid-week games, and of course the team has struggled.”

Clarence Tuma opened The Embers more than 50 years ago, before closing its doors on June 30, 2007. Jeff Tuma, Clarence’s son, took over the business after 30 years of success.

Now the restaurant will be rejuvenated in the form of a concession stand at home football games. Jeff said Dave Heeke, athletic director, came to him with the idea of starting the concession stand.

“Heeke wanted to create some nostalgia from years past that people would remember,” Jeff said.

Clarence said he had a successful business while it lasted, mostly because of the restaurant’s location on the corner of Mission and Preston streets.

The state of the economy was a major factor in the business closing, he said.

“We knew things in the country were going to get worse and more expensive,” he said.

Offering a pulled-pork sandwich based on their famous pork chop and their original peanut and pea salad at the stadium is a way for The Embers to show its support and appreciation for a community and university that contributed to the success of the business, he said.

A vital portion of the business came from CMU directly, Clarence said, and the majority of the employees were also from CMU. He said he sees this as an opportunity to give back to a community that made The Embers thrive.

“It was one hand helping the other hand,” he said.

Tuma said he and his son are not receiving any of the profits. CMU is just using the name and famous recipes, he said.

“It’s an honor CMU wants to recognize The Embers, but we also feel very pleased they are willing to do that,” he said.

Dewitt sophomore Rob Hollebrands served food at The Embers concessions at the Homecoming game Saturday.

“It was slow at first, but it started picking up once people started to know about it,” he said.

1994 alumna Rachele Moz said she was happy to see a part of her past brought back to the community.

“I liked the food there,” she said. “I went to eat there a lot back in the day.”

Beal City junior Nate Steffke said he was surprised to see the Embers brought back to Mount Pleasant. Steffke said being around the Mount Pleasant area as a kid, he always enjoyed eating at The Embers regularly with his family.

“It’s cool to see an old business come back and be able to show the community what it has to offer,” he said.

He said the restaurant always had a reputation in the community for delicious food.

“It’s a nice way for The Embers to be remembered and keep the association with CMU still alive,” Jeff said.

Attendance was high for tailgate over the weekend as a large showing of former Chippewas helped to fill the lot space before the Homecoming game against Eastern Michigan University. Though the Chippewas may not have fared well against Eastern, the lot showed signs of hope instead of the usual sparse numbers of tailgaters.

Troy sophomore Kaitryn McGaffey said the lot looked more crowded than usual, because of the large alumni showing. McGaffey said she rarely attends the tailgate at Lot 63 and usually spends the time before the game at Main Street, a tradition started by many students after the tailgating policy change in 2009.

“The Homecoming tailgate was really fun this year,” McGaffey said. “I’ve only been to two other tailgates at the lot and it was definitely more crowded than it was last year.”

Rochester Hills senior Danny Featherstone spent the Homecoming tailgate in the alumni lot near Rose Pond with his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. Featherstone said the fraternity tried holding a tailgate in the student lot for the first home game of the year, but it resulted in disappointment.

“I understand restrictions need to be made to keep everyone safe, but they’ve taken it too far for students,” Featherstone said. “We’ve had a lot more fun in the alumni lot than in the student lot.”

Featherstone said because of the fence and police presence, many students, especially those under 21, feel intimidated to attend the Lot 63 tailgate.

“(The rules) scared everyone away that isn’t 21 because they assume that the cops are going to watch them like a hawk,” Featherstone said. “When there’s only a couple hundred people at the lot, (the police) can tell pretty easily who is 21 and who isn’t.”

But for some students, attending tailgate still isn’t worth their time, even on Homecoming Weekend.

Allen Park junior William Pfafflin only attended one tailgate this year and said he was disappointed with his decision. Pfafflin said the quantity of police and lack of students in attendance make it hard for students to enjoy themselves in the parking lot.

“We usually just end up going straight to the game,” Pfafflin said. “Police have been making it impossible for students to have fun, and none of my friends think it’s worth it to go anymore.”

Sturgis resident and Central Michigan University alumnus Adam Simonson said he enjoyed bringing his children to a less rowdy tailgate.

“It’s really great to come back and watch our kids play with each other,” Simonson said. “It’s more responsible.”

The enforcement of several laws has changed the tailgating environment.

Alcohol is allowed in the parking lot, but not in the stadium. However, CMU does sell alcohol to private parties and some suites in the stadium.

Many of the men agreed back when they played football for CMU, the parking lot was full of drinking and partying.

“This used to be all students,” said New Hudson resident and alumnus Sam Lowe. “There was a lot of concern, so the police started clearing it out in ’99, but prior to that they didn’t care.”

The group of alumni and former football players stood together and took a picture in the parking lot. The men, accompanied by their families, were tailgating Saturday afternoon before the Homecoming game.

“We come every year for Homecoming, it’s a ritual,” said Simonson’s wife Emerlyn. “The guys used to play football together, now they get together and tailgate.”

Although several games were set up in the parking lot for the children, they played inside the cars instead to keep warm.

“Central’s tailgating is more family-friendly now and a little more low key,” Emerlyn said.

The men and women joked with one another as the children played around the table filled with hot dogs and cookies.

“The guys get together a month in advance and fix their schedules for this because they all live in different cities,” Emerlyn said.

Some mothers began huddling with their children in the car trying to keep warm as well.

“Hopefully my boys can play here like their dad did,” Emerlyn said. “He was a top 10 All-American.”

Music was flowing from speakers throughout the parking lot while students and families came together for Homecoming festivities.

“The game day environment is better than it was,” Emerlyn said. “For my kids, I’m happy with the way things are now.”

Although tailgating at CMU has changed over the years, some say the atmosphere still remains the same.

“It reminds me of when I was here,” Lowe’s wife Melissa said. “It will always be just as fun.”

Multiple sources report the possible profit, but Central Michigan University doesn’t sell any alcoholic concessions at Kelly/Shorts Stadium or other events and Athletic Director Dave Heeke said it’s not something he plans on changing. No other Michigan university sells alcohol at concessions either.

“Certainly there’s significant revenues that can help the athletic program and lessen the burden on the university,” Heeke said. “There is that concern over what type of message that sends to your fans and student body.”

While CMU brings in an average of 17,215 people a game, the West Virginia Mountaineers have an average attendance of 55,501.

If WVU’s expectations transferred to CMU it could mean more than $300,000. That’s the same amount CMU paid South Carolina State to come for the home opener.

Though the idea has been looked at by Athletics, Heeke said the decision hasn’t been considered “seriously.”

CMU does sell alcohol to private parties and some suites in the stadium.

But smuggling drinks into the stadium inevitably happens and Fraser senior Victoria Grace thinks she’s seen almost everything.

“Some girls hide it in their purse,” Grace said. “I’ve seen guys put it in their pants.”

Grace didn’t agree with Heeke’s philosophy about selling alcohol having a negative message.

“I think there is no right message to send to students,” Grace said. “They’re either going to drink or not drink (while) tailgating. It’s their choice and whether or not CMU sells it in the stadium won’t change it. It may encourage people over 21 to drink inside the game a little more.”

Heeke said the students who do get caught with alcohol are kicked out of the game.

“We take a pretty hard stand and smuggling in alcohol is against the rules of the stadium,” Heeke said.

Alcohol is allowed in the stadium’s parking lot, so some students wonder why there is such a strict policy against selling it at the game.

“Football and beer are always thought of going together,” said Troy sophomore Missy Clay. “I think that it wouldn’t make much of a difference if we sold it at our games. The fact that other schools do it shows that it’s not a bad thing.”

Lt. Cameron Wassman, of the Central Michigan University Police Department, said this weekend will result in high traffic around Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

“We’ve been working on (the strategy) over the past few months, setting things on paper,” Wassman said.

Entry into lots will not be allowed 30 minutes prior to the end of the game as part of the exit plan, Wassman said.

“We need time to make sure the route is free of vehicles,” Wassman said. “What would normally be in-bound traffic will be used for out-bound traffic.”

Lots 63, 64, 70, 71 and 73 will exit west onto West Campus Road. Lot 62E, 63 and the overflow lot will exit east from Bluegrass Road onto Mission Street. Lot 63W and 61 will exit north onto Broomfield Road.

CMU and Mount Pleasant Police will be positioned at main intersections including Broomfield and Mission roads, West Campus Drive and Broomfield Road, and West Campus Drive and Mission Road.

CMU Police have coordinated with athletics and facilities managment to implement the new strategy, which will encompass direction on CMU property with help from the Mount Pleasant Police.

“We want to try it this year to see how things work,” Wassman said.

Next year will bring high-traffic games against Western Michigan University and Michigan State University.

Ben Shaw, who helps coordinate traffic as a security officer for STT Security Inc., 1600 N. Mission Road, said that the new strategy should help to make things easier.

Wassman said he hopes that the new strategy will help to increase the overall happiness of those attending games.

“The only concern I notice is that people don’t know where to exit lots,” Shaw said.

According to Central Michigan University Communications, this is just one of a few major plans that will be used. Two-way roads surrounding the stadium will also be turned into one-ways and police will be stationed to help with traffic flow.

The strategy may be used as a solution with all high-traffic events, including home football games in the 2012 season, if successful.

Watch cm-life.com this weekend for more Homecoming coverage.

CMU v. NIU Highlights from CMLifeVideo on Vimeo.