A large number of Illinois football fans who showed up outside Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the annual Illinois Football Fan Appreciation Day were left disappointed and confused after the doors entering into the Great West Hall were shut and locked early with no explanation.

According to fans waiting in line, at around 1:25 p.m. – 35 minutes before the event was scheduled to end and after a number of fans had already entered the event – a representative of the team came out and announced that someone from the marketing department had decided to shut the door to Gate 24, an entrance on the west side of the stadium that was being used for entrance to the event. According to eyewitness account, more than 200 fans were left waiting in line with no way to get autographs or visit with the members of the team.

“I want a free ticket from Zook,” yelled out Jennifer Hughes, a 2009 graduate of the University who drove from Chicago to attend this year’s meet-and-greet session.

Although Hughes also was in town for the Urbana Sweet Corn Festival and to visit friends, she still felt like part of her weekend was cut short.

“It was just part of our weekend plans, but that is specifically why we came down on Saturday,” said Hughes, who has attended the event in years past. “It would have been cool to do this. I got here at 12:30, and I assumed it would be open until 2. It’s crazy.”

Other fans were surprised at how much the event was mishandled.

“I’ve never seen something so disorganized in my life,” said Barb Burch, a resident of Urbana.

Burch, who brought her daughter and two children who her daughter nannies, was equally confused when the event was brought to an abrupt halt.

“Tons of people just left after they said they were closing the door,” said Burch. “I’ve been a season ticket holder for years. The kids all had their hopes up and were ready to meet the players…I’m really disappointed by this.”

Cassie Arner, associate sports information director, was apologetic about the incident.

“When it’s obvious we won’t be able to get through everyone in at a reasonable time, you have to cut off the line. They cut off (the line) at 1:30 and we still ended at 2:45. It probably didn’t move as quickly as we wanted it to, but you can see we clearly have a lot of fans and they’re clearly supportive. We did it differently this year than we usually do it, and we’re sorry that we couldn’t get everyone through,” Arner said.

The University of Illinois athletic Web site, fightingillini.com, listed no time that the doors to Memorial Stadium would officially shut, listing only that the event was from noon until 2 p.m. and that fans were limited to only one item being signed per player “due to a large anticipated attendance.”

Younger fans weren’t the only ones feeling left out. David and Nancy Cooprider of Decatur, who came to Champaign for the day, were still in line at 2 p.m. when the last of the fans finally gave up on waiting.

“Twenty-five years of being a season ticket holder. That many years donating to the I-Fund. We got here at 12:25, they shut the door at 1:25 and we were 20 people away from the front of the line,” said David. “It’s not fair, not right. This is no way to treat people.”

Cooprider felt that the players could have stayed a bit longer to get everyone through the line.

“They billed it as noon to 2. All they would have to do is alert the players that it may be another 30 minutes to get everyone through.”