You build your baseball stadium with the regionals and Super regionals in mind. We did not. You could tell when they started framing in the roof that there wouldn't be enough shade. Lo and behold some of the best seats right behind home plate are empty because of it. The visual is terrible on tv because the first thing you think is that no one showed up for the game. You can tell the shaded seats are full, but they are further from the field and it dampens the atmosphere.
Volleyball took a very interesting approach for next season at the O'Dome. All season ticket holders must re-select their seats based on seniority (bad part). But now season tickets/reserved seats are only available in the north half of the stadium. This means that single-game purchase/walk-up general admission tickets have a first-come, first-served chance of getting seats as good as season ticket holders for every single game. The idea is to encourage casual fans to attend and get the fans who are actually present closer to the action where they can generate excitement for the team. Overall, I think this is a shrewd approach -- at least for a sport that never sells out and where season ticket holders often just go to a few games a season. Not saying that would work for other sports, but it does show "out of the box" thinking for crowd engagement.
Hey. I am retired engineering prof and have season tickets to both men's basketball and baseball. In Spring 2006 I taught two four credit courses so they were Tuesday and Thursday lectures and on the Thursday before the Final Four I cancelled classes for the next Tuesday. I KNEW the Gator Boyz were going to win and told my classes that and they should enjoy it. I also was going to Indy and knew I wouldn't be back in time to teach. LOL. I didn't tell them that. And BTW I gave up a lot of money to teach at UF. I could have made a lot more in the private sector. Turned down every offer.
This is my take on the ODome upgrade. I sit just off the endline at the Gator end of the court. I used to have to walk on the floor to get to my seat. Now there is a "press" row with the Dazzler coach, Athletic Association folks and a seat for Spurrier if he wants to attend. Yes, we were closer to the floor and that was great. I moved from Row 4 to Row 2 and I am further away. But with chairbacks instead of metal bleachers we cannot make anywhere near as much noise. Kicking the metal stands with your heels made a lot of noise!
If every single aspect of the experience has to be perfect for fans to show up and be engaged, that kinda means we don't love baseball.
McKethan was across the street from a few dorms and 200 yards from frat row… and it’s not like we had meaningful student attendance there either. It is what it is. We just don’t have as rabid a fan base, across all sports, as some of our competitors. That’s not to say we have “bad” fan support… it’s just not upper echelon, but the next tier down. I expect lots of “disagrees” and “come on mans”, because Gator Nation doesn’t look to be told it’s not the best at something.
It was walking disitance to bars. No way to meet folks before the game now, after the game or during rain delays for drinks unless you want to pay $9 a beer for crappy beers at the ball park.
Ha Ha - back in my day we would work out at the O-dome and then go watch the gymnast's practice. Lovely ladies
My dream as a kid was to be a Chemical Engineering prof. Came close. I was an Aerospace/Mechanics/Mechanical engineering prof with combustion as my primary research interest. Actually my dream job was to pitch in the Majors, but I figured that I had a better chance at teaching at the college level in my field. Actually they are both way out there for doing it.
The walk to the hilton or gumby’s isn’t that much further than the walk across university to get to bars from mckethan, especially if you parked on the other side of the stadium and not in the o dome lot.
For what it's worth, we've had an organ player at different times during the season, and at least for two games over the weekend. It's a nice touch, but I don't think it has any significant impact on the atmosphere. Filler music (between innings) doesn't help a baseball stadium's crowd environment. Sometimes music hits at the right time and gets people fired up, but it takes a little bit of awareness for the right person to make that happen. Just my two bits. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
I would hope they built with the big picture in mind. UF played 40 home games this season, 2 of them were regional day games. How it looks on TV for the two regional day games really isn't a concern. And as I sit here watching supers I see a whole lot of people sitting in the sun watching their teams play.
I don’t know where you liked to go before, but the bar at the hilton is nice, and you might can grab a nice dry aged steak if you’re there on a long weather delay. Gumby’s is a dump, like most of the places on university, lol.
The Social is not as much fun as the older and very stinky versions and Salty Dog has been asnd is still in awesome as a dive bar.
