By ESTHER YU
A dance at the Marriott Center ended abruptly Saturday when the large number of students dancing threatened the floor's capacity. The floor was left with cracks in six places.
Sponsoring the first dance at the Marriott Center in 15 years, BYUSA and the Athletic Department were unprepared for the approximately 3,000 students that rushed onto the dance floor, said Craig Coleby, campus activities executive director.
The dance was held immediately after the BYU vs. Utah men's basketball game. 'We did not expect so many people to attend the game,' Coleby said.
Karen Duffin, BYUSA's public relations director, said, 'We usually have about five or six thousand so we probably estimated from one thousand to three thousand .'
The problem became obvious when the Marriott Center had to turn away students that were just coming to watch the game. Two thousand students was the estimated amount to comfortably fit the students onto the floor, Coleby said.
'The Marriott Center was specifically designed for basketball so it has a bit of a spring,' Coleby said. 'That made it just that much worse with all of the jumping up and down that the students were doing.'
Also, when the last dance was held at the Marriott Center 15 years ago, it was a sock hop where students took off their shoes and didn't dance with the same amount of jumping up and down as they do now, said Coleby.
The dance had only been in progress for 15 minutes when the music had to be stopped to issue a warning to the students. There was too much moshing and body-surfing on the floor, said Coleby.
When the first warning was issued, 'we noticed that the floor was going up and down a lot,' said Coleby.
Workers in the hollow area underneath the Marriott Center floor also noticed that it was moving.
'Workers came up from underneath and expressed concern that the floor was going to cave in on them...they really believed that it was going to collapse,' said Coleby.
It became apparent that the problem could not be ignored. At this point, Dave Champlin of athletic media relations announced that half of the students on the floor needed to leave or the dance would have to be cancelled.
'Not many people left and even when some did leave more people would come down from off the stands. It was kind of frustrating and funny,' said Eric Hart, a freshman from Indianapolis, Ind., majoring in science.
When the majority of the students stayed in the Marriott Center, the dance was cancelled, having lasted for about 20 minutes, Coleby said.
According to Mary Jean Draper, Marriott Center director, six cracks were detected in the structure underneath the floor. Basketball players can continue to use the court but repairs will be done underneath to prevent any further damage from occurring.