In the aftermath of a walk-up line disaster last year, Krzyzewskiville is getting bigger.
The tent city is set to expand in the upcoming weeks to accommodate additional tents for flex tenting, which is set to replace the walk-up line—which devolved into drunken mob that tried to push its way into last year’s home game against University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Flex tents will be located outside Ambler Tennis Stadium near Towerview Road. A scavenger hunt called the Race to the Secret Spots will determine flex tent ordering, with the first 30 groups receiving white tenting spots and the next 30 heading to flex tents, according to co-head line monitor and senior Steve Hassey.
Tenting for the Feb. 20 UNC game at Cameron Indoor Stadium is divided into several categories—black, blue and white—each of which has distinct requirements and is admitted to the game with differing priority. Flex tents, however, are not guaranteed entry.
“We’re hopeful that every flex tent will get into the game, but unfortunately, due to the size constraints of the student section, we can only guarantee that black, blue and white will gain entrance,” Hassey wrote. “We picked the number of flex tents, however, with the goal that each one would get a spot in Cameron.”
Art Chase, senior associate director of athletics and external affairs, confirmed the flex tents' location in an email to The Chronicle.
The flex tenting area measures slightly more than 4,600 square feet, according to measurements taken by The Chronicle. Assuming the full capacity of 30 tents would fill the grass, this leaves around 150 square feet per tent.
The switch to flex tenting comes after the walk-up line implosion last year, when the line descended into chaos on game day. Students were eating signs, throwing full beer cans and cutting in line rampantly before mob of students erupted, casting aside barricades in a drunken rush to try to get into the game.
David Mallen, assistant director of the Duke Wellness Center, told The Chronicle in April that there were four alcohol-induced emergency medical services calls that day—a number that was elevated due to calls in response to the walk-up line.
“It’s come to a point to where it’s not in the best interest of the University, of Duke basketball, of the line monitors and the people in the walk-up line themselves to continue having it this way,” former co-head line monitor Sara Constand, Trinity '18, told The Chronicle in April.
Duke Student Government approved the switch to flex tenting at an October meeting, sealing the walk-up line's fate.
“The big problem we’re aiming to fix from the walk-up line last year is having a large number of people who are not guaranteed spots and are not sure if they can get in,” co-head line monitor Peter Potash, a senior, told The Chronicle in October. “The uncertainty of whether or not they’re going to get in caused a lot of that danger.”
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