NEW ORLEANS –– In a sea of red outside of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, five Gators fansstarted to chant, “It’s great to be a Florida Gator!”
Seconds later, University of Louisville fans drowned them out with their cheers, which had become common in New Orleans leading up to the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Despite being outnumbered prior to the game, 25-year-old Oviedo resident Kristyna Adams said she was confident Florida fans were ready to cheer on the Gators.
“I think that Gator fans showed up in abundance today,” Adams said. “Last night we were a minority. But today, Gator fans have risen, and we’re here to cheer.”
More fans may have showed up on the day of the game, but it wasn’t enough.
The university sold about 7,000 of its allotted 17,500 tickets.
The total attendance on Wednesday was 54,178 — the lowest Sugar Bowl attendance since 1939.
Some thought the high cost of the tickets deterred students from making the trip. The university sold tickets for $102 to its students — only about $50 cheaper than general public tickets.
“It shocked me how expensive it was for students,” said 21-year-old biology junior Cole McCarty.
Still, others said that Louisville fans outnumbered Florida fans because the Sugar Bowl isn’t viewed as a big game to them anymore.
This was the Gators’ ninth Sugar Bowl and the Cardinals’ first.
“With the Gator fans’ strong history, this isn’t enough for them anymore,” 56-year-old University of Louisville alumni Charles Lang said before the game. “They wanted to be in the national championship and playing a bigger team. Stranger things have happened, but if we were to upset Florida, that’d mean a big deal to us.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
