With a football program that grows further out of touch with its fanbase as the days go by, the University Athletic Association announced on April 14 that it was going to employ an innovative way to respond to the qualms of supporters.
Thus, the Fan Advisory Council was born. It features 13 people with current plans to meet quarterly, getting together for the first time in early-to-mid August.
The council is composed of one recent graduate, four fans from the lowest donor levels in the UF booster club system, two from the highest donor level and four from the remaining five donor levels in between.
The final two spots are filled by current UF undergraduates, one of whom is senior Mitchell Barnes. The 21-year-old finance major from West Palm Beach didn’t grow up a Gators fan, in fact, his allegiances were placed further south with the University of Miami.
Sun Life Stadium may have only rarely been filled with fans when Barnes attended Hurricanes games in high school with his family’s season tickets, but something about Miami home games shapes the main idea he’ll bring to the table when the council meets for the first time.
“One thing that really sticks out in my mind when comparing Miami to Gainesville is that there’s just such an open tailgating environment (in Miami),” Barnes said. “In Gainesville it’s interesting because there’s not so much of an open area for tailgating and even with that, a lot of campus is relatively closed off for tailgating.”
Barnes would like to see the school develop an area much like what Ole Miss has in “The Grove,” which is a consolidated spot on campus where thousands join together pregame. He sees the scene on campus during fall Saturdays as too spread out.
Besides Miami and Florida, he’s seen games at Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, LSU, Florida State and Georgia Tech. That puts him in stark contrast with Alicia Zurita, the other student and one of four women on the committee.
Zurita is an 18-year-old advertising major from Deltona, Fla., who grew up watching Gator football games with her dad. She was unable to attend a UF game in person before coming to college because of the cost involved, but jumped on the opportunity to get affordable student season tickets and was able to bring her father to a game.
“I’ll never forget the first time I walked in and just sat in the student section,” Zurita said. “I was just like ‘Oh my gosh, this is awesome.’”
When she spoke with alligatorSports, she was “speechless” when told that she was the only female student named to the council, something she was previously unaware of. Zurita also adds variety to what is, racially, a homogeneous cross section of Gator fans. She is of Puerto Rican descent and the only non-Caucasian member of the council.
“I feel like no matter if you’re male or female or what color you are, people just come together no matter what for Gator football,” Zurita said. “I guess it’s awesome that I could be a voice if any of the female students have something, now they have someone they can come and talk to.”
She wants more fan interaction and engagement during the in-game experience and an increased social media presence for fans during the actual game. Her idea was for a “tweet your seat” feature so images of fans could appear on the GatorVision boards during games.
The primary obstacle in the way of that for the UAA is the fact that the quality of cellphone service and in-stadium Wi-Fi is poor. Connectivity concerns are one of the most common complaints about the in-game experience in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The school is trying to combat the issue by upgrading the stadium’s antennae systems.
So UF is trying to reach you after all, John Q. Gator fan. The UAA hopes the council will help it directly get to know the organic needs of the fanbase.
The FAC’s primary goal is to give the athletic department ideas to get fans to come early and stay late. Time will tell what impact it will have.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Gators Ronald Powell and Dante Fowler, Jr. celebrate a 30-10 victory against Arkansas on Oct. 5, 2013, in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The UAA set up the Fan Advisory Council to give UF fans more of a voice.
