<p>All of you should attend a football game at Michigan Stadium. 113,000 seats, 99.9% of which are bench sets w/o a back. The seat sizes were probably determined in 1930. It’s usually ok for a regular game with the no-shows, but for Notre Dame, MSU and OSU you are shoehorned in and can’t move. When the crowd stands you better be one of the first to sit or you might discover that your seat has disappeared.</p>
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But this was not a winter dibs - this was a free half hour space (in summer) near Navy Pier meant for a nearby gourmet grocery store.</p>
<p>boysx3-
Great news!! Did you happen to subtly inquire if the guys who caused the ruckus were either informed they would have to buy 2 seats in the future, or were politely uninvited from purchasing seats in the future do to their disruptive behavior?</p>
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<p>I immediately thought, “What would Larry (David) do?”</p>
<p>As I read this thread I can say but this: There are some very classy people here. And there are some venues that truly care about their patrons.</p>
<p>As a mother of a child who works for a major sport team I know how important customer service is to the organization. Whether you are corporate or a ticket taker or an intern you represent the company at all times. </p>
<p>And Larry David…he would have refused to move and then when people became angry with him Larry wouldn’t have understood why anyone was angry or upset with him.</p>
<p>Speaking of Larry David -
There was a Seinfeld episode much like this (2 cars trying to park in one space and ‘who’ has the right to it).</p>
<p>Funny this topic should arise today…last weekend DH and I attended a concert in an informal setting. There were rows of metal straight back chairs with a little seat cushioning. There was no spacing between chairs and no assigned seats. We got there early to get great seats. After the show started a young couple (in their 20’s) sat by me. Both of them were pretty heavy. At first the young woman was beside me. Her arms and legs were overflowing the seat but I could deal with it. During the intermission, they went to the bar. When they came back, the young man took the seat beside me. He was even wider than his gf. His arms and thighs were literally on my chair squishing up on mine. I was very uncomfortable but couldn’t move since the seat on the other side of DH was taken and I refused to stand in the back of the venue. I ended up scooting half of my leg over to DH’s seat, sort of straddling the two seats. I was thankful when the band played some crowd favorites and everyone stood up. </p>
<p>Seems like the young man would have noticed that he was all over my seat and squashing into me. I guess it didn’t bother him.</p>
<p>The family, 2 parents and 3 young kids, once missed a connection in Cleveland. We got rebooked for the following morning, all middle seats, all over the plane, four hour flight to Seattle. My kids are polite and fairly self-sufficient so that didn’t worry me too much. We checked on them a couple of times.</p>
<p>When I got to my seat near the rear, however, two large women, a mother and daughter, had taken the window and aisle seats. Luckily I’m kind of skinny, but getting into the seat was like floss between two molars, involving lots of arm, shoulder, and thigh manipulation. I rode home buried in a pile of hot pillows, maybe the most awkward flight ever, touching the entire length of my body but avoiding eye contact.</p>
<p>^^ It’s hard to imagine one of them (mother or D) wouldn’t have been polite enough to slide over to be adjacent to their family member rather than sticking a stranger between them.</p>
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<p>We observed the same thing at the beach last year. We were behind this mess but found a parking space within a few minutes. A little patience does wonder.</p>
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<p>This is why we pay for earlybird boarding on Southwest. Well, one of the reasons.</p>
<p>My son has huge shoulders and my wife and daughter are thin so he sits with them and I take an aisle seat. I can not recall when I’ve had to sit next to a large person in the last six or so years but I don’t fly that much.</p>
<p>Being fat stinks [I’ve lost a lot of weight but have never been in the overflowing an airline seat category]. Someone that is overflowing - I can imagine the embarrassment, but what do you do about it? I personally don’t like touching the skin of other people and I dress appropriately for that, even if there’s some discomfort due to the temperature. I’d guess a jacket with a lot of metal jewelry on the sleeves could discourage getting squished. I’m just not into the punk rocker look myself.</p>
<p>I’m only 5’4" and have had my knees banged on flights. Who are they designing the seats for? I’ve heard for width they consider the hips of a 50% male, when they should be considering the shoulders of a 50% male. For legroom, they should at least aim for taller than me.</p>
<p>I was once on a commuter train in Stockholm, every day for a week or so. The seats were in rows that FACED each other and were very tight. You actually had to climb in and weave your knees in with the people across from you; left, right, left right! Me and all those long legged Scandinavians! I heard the train cars had been made in Italy where that sort of close contact might have been a bit more comfortable, or at least conducive to making eye contact.</p>
<p>And speaking of people who are space hogs - it drives me crazy when people stand around with their hands on their hips and their elbows jutting out in crowded places. There’s no reason to stand like that unless you’re a pathetic passive-aggressive fool! You’re asking for bruised elbows too. </p>
<p>I think it that case, as annoying as it is, most people are not conscious of what they are doing. It’s hard to believe the armrest pounding people or some of these others are not conscious.</p>
<p>Maybe the idea is that you interleave big people with small people.</p>
<p>^^ hopefully so! Most of the time we had children with us so it worked but with strangers it was very awkward.</p>
<p>boysx3: Thank you for updating us with the happy ending. It’s wonderful that the venue recognized and appreciated that you stepped in to help!</p>
<p>A few years ago some parents asked me for my window seat so they could sit together with their child instead of separated across the aisle a few rows apart. I always select the window seat for the view, but it was almost dark and the flight was fairly short, so I said ok and took their middle seat in the other row. Reading these stories I guess I’m lucky the people on either side of me kept to their own space! The little girl spent a good part of the flight making me a thank-you drawing. It was so sweet I still have it.</p>
<p>I prefer the aisle because if I need to get up I dont like to awaken my DH, who is far better at sleeping on plane than I am. Because he flies a lot, we board early, and invariably I get smacked in the face or the head multiple times, if I dont shield myself fast enough, by women’s purses on their shoulders or someone’s backpack as they go by… especially if for some reason they turn around. People are completely oblivious to the fact that the space is tight and people are sitting down. I’ve been in other situations (on the crowded trains in the airport, for example) where people with backpacks dont realize, or simply dont think about the people around them when they move. I am short-- my face is backpack height.</p>
<p>A friend of mine had college season football tickets with terrible neighbors. My friend had eight seats, and the neighbors had a large block, but somehow they were always shoehorning in extra people. They would then take up more than their space, or when standing ease over into my friends space (or a couple of times MY space, since I was sitting there).</p>
<p>The next year my friend paid extra for two stadium seats for his block of eight. Doing this makes a nice “border” and establishes where the line is. Of course, the next year I think the bad neighbors moved elsewhere, but my friend continues to pay extra for two stadium seats for his block of eight.</p>
<p>I won’t go to any sporting events with bench seats, for the reasons mentioned. If I <em>must</em> go, I take along one of those portable cloth stadium seats with a back that folds up. It establishes and holds one’s space, for the most part, but even with one of those seats I’ve had big people encroach my space right up to the point of bodily contact.</p>
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<p>I tried this, and it did not work. We bought 4 bench seats for the two of us, with this idea in mind. Unfortunately what happened is that large people around us moved into the area anyway. It was too awkward to say, “Um, I bought those empty seats, so please get out of them,” when they were so large they had no where to move to and we weren’t filling them anyway. I just ended up paying extra for their comfort.</p>
<p>Jym, my face is backpack height, too. I am always getting dinged on the express bus. About five years ago a man went to put his backpack in the luggage rack and as he swung it up it hit me in the mouth and split my lip. He was completely oblivious to my bloody face. Not long after that, something similar happened to a man. The person who had been hit wanted an apology, the guy who hit him didn’t believe he had done so, even though many people on the bus told him. They got into a knockdown fistfight.</p>
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<p>I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the OP’s post. My husband and I attended a UofM game last fall and were shocked at how narrow the “seats” (bench numbers) were.</p>
<p>We fit okay but I remember wondering “How do the majority of Michiganders fit on their number??”. Thank goodness it was the season opener and not one of the big games!</p>