It’s going to be harder than usual for traveling Tiger fans to hear the LSU band this season at football road games.Budget constraints in the LSU Athletic Department have forced the Golden Band from Tiger Land to discontinue its practice of taking the full band to all of the away football games. The band will instead take a small pep band to the season opener in Seattle.”We’ll also be busing the band to and from location in one day in order to save money on extra hotel accommodations, extra days of bus rental and other expenses,” said Herb Vincent, senior associate athletic director.Vincent said the change to in-conference travel was made to accommodate the band’s cross-country trip to Seattle for LSU’s season opener — a trip that originally wasn’t going to happen.”Originally we looked into budget cuts and concerns, and we decided one high-profile way to cut back was to not travel to Washington,” Vincent said.The decision to forego the trip wasn’t a popular one with many LSU fans and alumni who wanted the band in Seattle.”We got a lot of e-mail,” Vincent said. “It generated discussion around the department, and we decided to reconsider and send the band.”The pep band playing in Husky Stadium will be a scant 50 people — roughly 15 percent of the band’s full membership. Even so, the trip to Seattle will cost the Athletic Department around $75,000, according to Vincent.”It sucks that it’s only 50 of us, but you can’t be mad at the Athletic Department. It’s not really their fault,” said Jye Turk, general studies senior and Tiger Band drummer.The changes made to the band’s Southeastern Conference travel schedule should help offset the cost of the Washington trip. For instance, Vincent said sending the band to Starkville, Miss., for two days to play this season’s Mississippi State game would have cost $38,000.He added this year’s one-day trip should cost around $15,000.The shortened trip could be an extra strain on students, but band members don’t seem to mind the changes.”It’s not as much fun, in some ways, as having a layover night in the city to hang out with friends in the band, but it’s still a ticket to the game, supplied food, a free trip there and just the experience with Tiger Band itself,” Turk said. “The layover is a bonus in my eyes and isn’t something to complain about not having.”All in all, Vincent said the various changes — cutting out a full-band trip, as well as cutting trips to one day — will save the Athletic Department somewhere between $120,000 and $125,000.The decrease in band attendance raises the question of who will attend the games. The pep bands for SEC contests will feature roughly 100 members of the 325-person band.Linda Moorhouse, associate director of bands, said members will be picked for pep bands in order of instrumentation, seniority and availability.”Most all of the students will be able to attend at least one road game this fall,” she said.Turk said he is definitely attending the Washington game and is hoping to travel to Georgia based on seniority.The Athletic Department’s budget will determine if the changes are kept in coming years, but Vincent added that there is currently “discussion” around the SEC to create rules preventing schools from bringing entire bands on trips.”We’re not trying to pick on the band,” he said. “Our Athletic Department spends more on the band than any other school in the SEC because it’s so important to us.”Vincent said the Athletic Department spends an annual $900,000 on “equipment, salaries and travel” for the band and that it also spent $4.5 million to help fund renovations on the LSU School of Music and Band Hall.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]