I agree with Rob, the perfect storm is hitting the football program, some Muschamp has something to do with, but most he does not.
The combination of the City of Gainesville, University and Athletic Department combined with a potential 3rd straight year of bad football is driving fans away.. I posted some time ago, that my 30 year run as a season ticket holder ended this season. One unseen thing that is happening that I think takes a toll on the average fan is the complete gutting of the entire Gator Club/Gator Gathering concept. The Jacksonville Gator Gathering and Club are on life support, in the past the Gator Gathering was at the end of July just before fall practice began, routinely 1500 or more people showed up to get things signed by the coach and generally get excited about the season. Now the UF Alumni Association runs and schedules the Gatherings and tells the clubs what date they are coming.This year less than 300 showed up, a couple of years ago they scheduled the Gathering on a Friday at 5pm, right when people were getting off work, less than 200 showed up, it was miserable. Combine the cost of going to games, cost of tickets and donation, bad treatment of the fans, and a bad product on the field versus sitting at home and watching the games in HD, makes it very tempting for people to stop going to every game.. Stephen Manuel 12212 Reedpond Drive East Jacksonville, FL 32223 Cell Phone: 904-607-4805 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rob Alexander Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 11:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [gatortalk] Fwd: [gatornews] Bianchi: Spoiled Gator fans can't even sell out season opener I think Bianchi is completely out of line. He has too major premises, that 1) empty seats mean that Florida's fans are fickle, and that 2) the message boards represent the views of Florida's fans, and since there are jerks on the message boards, that Gator fans must all be jerks. I reject both propositions. The UFAA has spent years making it difficult to get tickets, and creating the impression that being a season ticket holder is an expensive proposition. Even as they've tried to ease up on that this year, it's still expensive. They built the capacity, and set the fee structure, at a time when the economy was strong and the Gators were contenders every year. In addition, they and GPD have added so many rules and restrictions on pre-game activities that it's nowhere near as fun to attend a game in person as it used to be. Add to it, that we all have (or could have) large screen HD TVs in our homes, that it's free, that I won't be arrested at home for having a beer in my hand, and that I can enjoy my 'tailgate' throughout the game, and it's easy to see why fans may choose not to go through all that to swelter in the late-summer Gainesville heat. Is there an element of fans not being as excited as in years where we have a good team? Sure, but that's just the nature of the beast. There is absolutely no team out there that sells as many seats when their team is mediocre as they do when it's a NC contender. Holding Gators to a higher standard is ridiculous. As to the second, are you kidding me? Do you think people outside of the US should base their views about Americans on the comment sections of cnn.com? That would give them a pretty skewed view, now wouldn't it? It's no different with online Gator fan boards. They attract, and cater to, the extremists. Those are most certainly not a reflection of the average fan. I would imagine that our little mailing list more closely reflects the view of most Gator fans... some disappointment with the game, some concern for the season, and a willingness to let it play out and see how it all comes out. I haven't seen anyone here 'ravaging Muschamp' or saying we should have beaten BG by 60-0. Any fan who isn't disappointed in that performance just wasn't watching. That doesn't mean that Armageddon has arrived, or we're not fans any more. Heck, we wouldn't be fans if we didn't care. For me, I'm pretty concerned that we were apparently unable to make one yard on the ground when we needed to. I don't care how many people they stack up... we should be able to make one yard at will. You know Alabama and LSU can, and we won't be back in the SEC conversation until we can. That concerns me, and here I am saying so, but that doesn't make me a fair weather fan. That just makes me a fan who watched the game and would like to see his team meet its potential. So, yeah, I think that Bianchi is the one who's spoiled. He loves this stuff so much that he does it for a living, and he thinks that everyone has to be just as motivated as he is. Well, it doesn't work that way... it never has and it never will. Rob Sent from my iPad On Sep 3, 2012, at 9:47 AM, "mail.bobparks.com" <[email protected]> wrote: Ouch!! I'd love to complain that Bianchi is just another in a long line of Sentinel writers who carries a grudge for Florida, another Gator Hater. But, Bianchi is a Gator! And... He's right! Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI Real Estate Broker Bob Parks, LLC 1517 Hunt Club Blvd Gallatin TN 37066 615-972-4239 615-826-4040 Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: Helen Huntley <[email protected]> Date: September 2, 2012 6:17:35 PM CDT To: [email protected] Subject: [gatornews] Bianchi: Spoiled Gator fans can't even sell out season opener Reply-To: [email protected] poiled Gators fans can't even sell out season opener Mike Bianchi, SPORTS COMMENTARY 9:20 p.m. EST, September 1, 2012 GAINESVILLE - Now we know what that empty chair was that Clint Eastwood talked to at the Republican National Convention. It was one of the vacated seats from Florida Field. Or, wait, maybe it was the one reserved for Florida's starting quarterback - because that seat is still unoccupied, too. If the Florida Gators keep playing as they did in their sloppy, choppy, jalopy of a 27-14 season-opening victory over Bowling Green on Saturday, that nonsellout gathering of 84,000 fans will seem like an Indianapolis 500 crowd by the end of the season. As it was, the Gators played the opener in front of their spoiled-rotten fan base, and a Jacksonville Jaguars crowd broke out. What next? Tarps in the upper decks and home games in London? Poor Will Muschamp. Now all the second-year Gator coach can do is tune out the deafening "noise in the system" former coach Ron Zook used to rail against. Despite the victory, the message-boards assassins will ravage Muschamp with criticism about the offense's third-down-conversion rate, the defense's poor tackling, the 14 penalties and the uncertain quarterback situation. Even though Jeff Driskel was on the field for the first snap and played the entire second half, Muschamp claims he doesn't know whether Driskel or Jacoby Brissett will start next week against Texas A&M. There will be no Gator fan love for UF running back Mike Gillislee's 148 yards and two touchdowns. There will be no consideration that Muschamp admittedly tried to force the running game on third-and-short to establish a physical mind-set among UF's offensive line. There will be no regard that Muschamp and new coordinator Brent Pease held back much of their offense in preparation for next week's SEC opener at Texas A&M. That's not what Gator fans do. They just complain a lot. Muschamp has said all week that he wanted the opener to set the tone for the season, and he claims that's exactly what happened Saturday. "We're 1-0," he said. "I like this football team. Are there things we need to work on? Yes. ... But I certainly feel a lot better than I did a year ago - I can tell you that." Of course, UF fans don't want to hear that. They wouldn't be satisfied unless the Gators won 60-0 over Bowling Green - a team from the Mid-American Conference. They will point to what former UF coach Urban Meyer's Ohio State team did when it played a MAC opponent Saturday (a 56-10 win) or what UCF did when it played a MAC team Thursday (a 56-14 win). Muschamp's mission is not only to rebuild the roster, but to re-energize a once-passionate fan base quickly losing interest. He and his team certainly did nothing to invigorate Gator Nation on Saturday. Muschamp has closed practices to fans and media, but if his team puts together a few more lackluster performances, he might want to consider closing games, too. Then again, he might not have to worry about it because fans might just quit coming on their own. In fact, they already have. What happened to that old Gator arrogance and adoration? Where is that old Gator devotion and emotion? Have you ever felt less of a buzz for a UF season than this one? Just goes to show that Florida fans might be the most fickle in all of college football. They are four years removed from a national championship, three years removed from an undefeated regular season, and The Swamp is drying up. Ads By Google Delight Your CustomersTransform your customer service. See how top companies get social. www.salesforce.com/service-cloud Florida's last two non-conference home games (other than FSU) - Bowling Green on Saturday and Furman last year - are the lowest-attended since the last home game before Zook got fired. And it's not just the high-dollar seats that are going unsold. For the first time anyone can remember, the Gators didn't sell out their allotment of season tickets or student tickets. "It's not fun when the Gators aren't winning," UF student Magdala Joseph told the student newspaper. "If it becomes a season where the games are worth watching, I'll go." Can you say spoiled? Can you say faithless and fickle? I think it's time for Florida fans to change the words of "We Are the Boys" - the traditional old song the UF crowd sways to at the beginning of the fourth quarter of home games. The old verse says, "In all kinds of weather, we all stick together." The new one should say, "In only fair weather do the fans get together." If you don't believe me, just ask the empty chair. [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to his radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on 740 AM. -- Helen Huntley (727) 823-3801 www.helenhuntley.com -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
