Florida to shrink capacity in The Swamp?

[78]

I love Florida Field. Some of my best memories from college are from being in those sun-drenched east stands. Smuggling in bottles of Bicardi to spike those huge plastic Gator cups full of Coke. Passing chicks from the bottom row to the top. Cheering like mad for a team that had a Sybil personality. General craziness.

There's nothing like being at a Gator game. There's also nothing like being 10 steps from the bathroom. You age, your priorities change.

Part of my cheering now involves cheering for a packed house. Doesn't happen as much anymore. Our guys need you, Gators. The 12th man still rules.

 

[Omar's Coming Yo!]

I am probably in the minority here, but I am quite fine if they shrink the capacity b/c we have not been good for 10 years and getting a seat for much less than face value is very easy. But regardless of whether they take seats out or even add seats, the first thing that needs to be done is to refurbish the place. The place is a dump and needs to be updated and I don;t mean fancy scoreboards, lights etc. The bathrooms are disgusting, as bad as the old Wrigley field. The aluminum bleachers are older than dirt. Just like Fooley let the team rot, he let the stadium rot as well. We have a very transient fan base that does not travel to away games or bowl games, so if sometime in the future the team gets good, make them pay to come watch by taking 5000 or 10000 seats out. Most of the people at the games anyway are just banging on their devices and I am not just talking about the students. Even the old people really don;t give a SHYT about watching the game.

anything has been better than us the last 8 years.
Not only that taking out seats cuts down on revenue. Less fans equals less $. I know watching the game at home has changed things but let's not cut off our nose here. We'll be back one day and those missing seats will also cause ticket prices to go even higher in price (if they aren't inflated already)

 

[Theologator]

I need to see specifics. No way would I want the Swamp to wind up with less capacity than Joke Shambles.

They could improve things a lot by just providing all season ticket holders with the seats you can rent. I wouldn’t bother with the students, band or visitor sections. That and good WiFi would be great.

A seat saves you from knees in your back and corrals the sometimes enormous backsides that otherwise ooze all over the place.

 

[GatorStud]

I love Florida Field. Some of my best memories from college are from being in those sun-drenched east stands. Smuggling in bottles of Bicardi to spike those huge plastic Gator cups full of Coke. Passing chicks from the bottom row to the top. Cheering like mad for a team that had a Sybil personality. General craziness.

There's nothing like being at a Gator game. There's also nothing like being 10 steps from the bathroom. You age, your priorities change.

Part of my cheering now involves cheering for a packed house. Doesn't happen as much anymore. Our guys need you, Gators. The 12th man still rules.

From the south endzone 'bleachers' days to copping some good late afternoon shade on the big BLUE,BLUE,BLUE... madness began single, thru dates, wife and children... law library parties, show and tell tailgates... lotta memories for me too, family piggybacked on my good fortune graduating from UF. Like you said, now, more TV and radio games for me. But, no place like Florida Field when its ON!

 

[divits]

I'm kind of torn. 19 year old me says, "F**k that! If you can't hang we don't need you pussies!". Fully developed frontal lobe me with the bad back says, "Gee, it sure would be nice to have a little more room and not get smeared with fat guy sweat and be elbowed 33 times a game by the lard ass sitting next to me."

I'm not going to lie, I went to a couple UCF games this year and even though the stadium was sold out I was very comfortable since there's more leg room and every seat has a backrest. It was nice. That said, I think that the way people are packed into the Swamp are what make the Swamp the Swamp. I think the way people are shoulder to shoulder tends to help people feed off each other's energy and gives the place that feeling of one solitary "living, breathing" thing.

When I went to school your tickets were more like coupons and each game someone from our fraternity would gather up everyone's coupons and take them to the ticket office, (where I met Foley when he was an intern) and then you would be assigned your block seating. And the location of the blocks rotated each game all around the East stands. One game you'd be 10 rows up on the ten yard line the next 40 rows up on the 50. And everyone wanted to sit in the block even if they didn't get tickets in the block. So you ended up with 150 people squeezed into 110 seats. Somehow we always found room for the ladies.

 

[ufgator812]

 

[GatorBart]

Many of these current students are more like what you would envision attending MIT. They might be more into calculus and physics than blocking and tackling.


Alex.

This. My niece had to decide between Harvard and UF. She chose UF because her boyfriend was going to be a Gator and it's closer to home. She had a full ride scholly to FSU if she wanted, but turned it down. Proud uncle here.
However, they go to all the games (football and basketball), so they're not part of the new youth nerd movement ambivalence. They may be nerds, but they're good Gator fans.

 

[Theologator]

Buddy reports his daughter is on the ambassador team and says they had 10k more applications this year than last. They attribute that to being recognized in the top 10 of public universities. Over 40,000 applications for 14,000 spots, average GPA 4.7, SAT at 1400 - all of the above records.

 

[jeeping8r]

One of our family members just got his acceptance letter to Fall 18, Happy family

 

[Jbossgator8]

Slevin taking a page out of my book and OWNING and DESTROYING this thread!

 

[TN G8tr]

Just win and the situation takes care of itself.

 

[Okeechobee Joe]

Lean and mean

 

[rogdochar]

I would go for some of those overhangs you see on professional soccer fields.

With solar-powered ceiling fans of high speed.

 

[stephenPE]

I love Florida Field. Some of my best memories from college are from being in those sun-drenched east stands. Smuggling in bottles of Bicardi to spike those huge plastic Gator cups full of Coke. Passing chicks from the bottom row to the top. Cheering like mad for a team that had a Sybil personality. General craziness.

There's nothing like being at a Gator game. There's also nothing like being 10 steps from the bathroom. You age, your priorities change.

Part of my cheering now involves cheering for a packed house. Doesn't happen as much anymore. Our guys need you, Gators. The 12th man still rules.

This. The bathrooms are fine. Ive been in lots of them the last few years. Seats are fine. I had chairbacks in the southeast corner from 1980-2010.
Sat on bleachers with that fold up cushion seat. THey do have some scoreboard nonsense now and some silly ass games for your phone.
Im ok with it. Students are not football fans like the 90s for sure.
I swear from 65 to 2000 something never a cancelled game and now seems like one a year. Global warming insanity.
THe product on the field will do more than any renovations or upgrades if it gets more exciting.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Global warming insanity.

 

[MJMGator]

This. The bathrooms are fine. Ive been in lots of them the last few years. Seats are fine. I had chairbacks in the southeast corner from 1980-2010.
Sat on bleachers with that fold up cushion seat. THey do have some scoreboard nonsense now and some silly ass games for your phone.
Im ok with it. Students are not football fans like the 90s for sure.
I swear from 65 to 2000 something never a cancelled game and now seems like one a year. Global warming insanity.
THe product on the field will do more than any renovations or upgrades if it gets more exciting.

It’s not global warming. It’s the pussification of America that now runs away if lightning can be seen within 100 miles.

 

[stephenPE]

THey have a protocol if it strikes within a certain distance you get a certain amount of delay. Jeez its Fla in Sept. Lightning almost everyday.
Same way with my PE classes. If I see we gethefck in...........I aint gettin sued cause momNature gets jiggy with it.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Slevin taking a page out of my book and OWNING and DESTROYING this thread!

He needs an alcohol interlock installed on his phones or computers.

 

[bayou gator]

Remove a few seats? Ok, whatever. At least we don't have to make room for mac's yellow teeth anymore.

I'm more concerned about what's going on down on the field. If that improves, everything else about the program will fix itself.

 

[stephenPE]

One of our family members just got his acceptance letter to Fall 18, Happy family

One of my former students just got accepted for the fall. Hampton girl.