When Lamical Perine bounced off an Auburn defender on his own 15-yard line, then broke another tackle at the 30 there was nothing but green grass in front of him and 90,584 people whose sanity had all but vanished as the walls of Ben Hill Griffin quivered from the roar.
Being at a football game and experiencing moments like that are priceless, however, in 2019 college football attendance numbers dropped to their lowest point since 1996. It’s a tougher sell in this day and age where every game is televised and it’s much more financially viable to buy an 80” tv and a nice couch, rather than pay to travel, book a hotel, buy tickets and stadium food on a weekly basis.
Now, add a global pandemic and not many people are envious of the people in charge of selling tickets to college football games. You have to get creative, which Florida has done.
Florida has done a lot to change the in-person gamely experience for the better in the last three seasons. The Gator Village, a premium tailgate setup gave fans a front-row seat for Gator Walk under tents with ample room to move around and get right up close to the excitement when the team gets off their busses and begins to lock into the game. Around the tents were food trucks, live music, and drinks.
Once inside the stadium a new high-powered wifi system was set up prior to the 2019 season to allow fans access to their phones, allowing them to stay connected to other scores, social media, friends, and family while enjoying the game.
As of right now, Florida has 3,000 tickets left to sell for the season opener. It’s hard to imagine not being able to sell 16,956 for a football game in Gainesville but it’s not just a Florida problem. With concerns over contracting the Coronavirus, many fans will choose to simply sit this season out, even if they have the option to go to the game in person. A Populous survey earlier this summer found that 87% of college basketball and college football fans and concert-goers want to return to live events, but only 47% of them were “comfortable” in returning to attending games. According to the University of Florida, the average age of a season ticket holder in 2019 was 58 years. That’s not old, but if you consider that age as an average there will be a lot of older people that have purchased season tickets for decades that won’t this year over the fear of COVID-19.
Even though there is a limited capacity at stadiums right now, fans can make a huge difference. So we need the Gator fans to maximize, we can’t pack the swamp, but maximize what we can do at the Swamp on Saturdays. I know there are still tickets available for the game, which is something that is a little bit of different, unique,” head coach Dan Mullen said. “I think there are a lot of people I’ve talked to out there, ‘oh coach, it’s just a shame, we would love to go to a game this year, but we can’t get tickets this year’ or what the situation is. So there are still tickets available. All the Gator nation out there, if you want to come to the game, please contact … get in touch to the ticket office. There are still tickets available for Saturday’s game. And just like I said last week, it is such a huge deal to be in the Swamp on a Saturday.”
Florida is doing right by the students in this case. Each week students can enter a lottery where 2,000 tickets are available. That isn’t a lot considering the undercard enrollment at Florida tops 50,000. What Florida has chosen to do this year is make all the unsold tickets each week available to the student body. Students will receive an e-mail the Thursday before each home game with a notification of how many tickets are available and how to apply for those tickets. They will be priced at the normal student price and students who get those tickets will sit on the east side of the stadium with their classmates.
It’s certainly understandable if a person chooses not to go to a game, it’s their prerogative. Florida is doing its best to provide a safe environment but you can’t put everyone in a hazmat suit to bake in the Florida sun watching football.
If you feel comfortable going out in public, the Gators are making Ben Hill Griffin the as safe as you possibly can and the plan is the only thing you catch at The Swamp is a hoarse voice from yelling for plays like Perine’s scamper against Auburn.
“To be in the Swamp in October feels normal, and I know life hasn’t always felt normal the past six months,” Mullen said Come join us in the Swamp this Saturday, it should be great the first home game.”