Roll Call for Boca Raton Bowl

[bull2saintleo]

On 12/22/2023 at 12:25 AM, 79 Bull said:

Back from the game.  Other than the team's play and the great victory, this lower-level bowl absolutely sucked from a fan's perspective.

Absolutely no pre-kickoff activity of interest on the field.  The bands did not appear, all of a sudden the first parachuter appeared under the lights and hit the ground 2 seconds later.  The PA announcer sounded surprised people were dropping in when he said and that was so and so Navy seal.  NO ONE knew they were in the sky on their way down.  There was zero in-game fan cams, dance cams, etc.  Also, not the bowl's fault I guess, but the bands were on same side of the stadium as their fans.  If you weren't sitting in the section next to them or behind them, you couldn't hear them at all.  We were in 125 and could only hear the Syracuse band as they were facing us.

Now, what we need to learn from FAU's stadium.  It was an okay facility, but you could not hear the PA announcer if you were on the other side of the 50 away from the video screen where the only speakers were.  The wifi and cell coverage was awful.  Parking was a super mess with really bad signage and no one helping with the flow into the lots.  People were kind of on their own making a bunch of U-turns and trying to find the entrance to the cash lot.  After waiting in a long, long line around 6:15, we made it to the entry and there were only 2 guys taking the cash.  We were with some friends who go to all the FAU home games and they said they have none of these issues when FAU is in control.  Many of the concessions were closed and there were really long lines at the bars.  They ran out of a lot of food at half time.

Bottom line is these made-for-tv ESPN bowls not in NFL stadiums care little about the fan experience.  They only want to sell ads and that's it.  All that being, said we had a GREAT time and the victory was super sweet.  It's been a while.

GO BULLS!

I can concur with all of this.  I had a great time, but the fan experience points @79 Bull stated about the band location (should have had the bands in the endzones), the cell signal, the parking operations/logistics. Stadium audio was awful too, being limited to just some speakers around the tiny video board.

One note that I ran into that maybe some of you also did, but I had my tickets in my Apple wallet and upon arrival to the gate the attendant was very confused and looked for the barcode.  Apple wallet tickets usually dont have barcodes.  It took a good couple minutes until a supervisor with another scanning device figured it out and we were let in.

All in all, the game was great but the fan experience could have been a little better.

A

[Rocky Style]

1 hour ago, bull2saintleo said:

but I had my tickets in my Apple wallet and upon arrival to the gate the attendant was very confused and looked for the barcode. 

Same.  The guy just looked at my screen and let me in.

[BDYZR]

2 hours ago, bull2saintleo said:

I can concur with all of this.  I had a great time, but the fan experience points @79 Bull stated about the band location (should have had the bands in the endzones), the cell signal, the parking operations/logistics. Stadium audio was awful too, being limited to just some speakers around the tiny video board.

One note that I ran into that maybe some of you also did, but I had my tickets in my Apple wallet and upon arrival to the gate the attendant was very confused and looked for the barcode.  Apple wallet tickets usually dont have barcodes.  It took a good couple minutes until a supervisor with another scanning device figured it out and we were let in.

All in all, the game was great but the fan experience could have been a little better.

A

We had zero problems driving in and parking. Zero problems with tickets. Zero problem getting back out after the game.
Something people need to understand is the bowl is put on by the Orange Bowl Committee, not FAU. I don’t know if the sound problem is normal or not. Concessions sucked.

[Ricky the Bull]

Seating was fine, but the sound system was terrible. Plus, none of the post-game trophy presentations went over the P.A.

[Triple B]

15 hours ago, bull2saintleo said:

I can concur with all of this.  I had a great time, but the fan experience points @79 Bull stated about the band location (should have had the bands in the endzones), the cell signal, the parking operations/logistics. Stadium audio was awful too, being limited to just some speakers around the tiny video board.

One note that I ran into that maybe some of you also did, but I had my tickets in my Apple wallet and upon arrival to the gate the attendant was very confused and looked for the barcode.  Apple wallet tickets usually dont have barcodes.  It took a good couple minutes until a supervisor with another scanning device figured it out and we were let in.

All in all, the game was great but the fan experience could have been a little better.

A

I guess I got one of the smart ticket takers because had no problem with my Apple wallet tix. I was a little concerned because the guy in front of me had the barcode but was easy peasy ....

[Brad]

It's a made for TV event.  Not made for you fans.

[Rocky Style]

11 minutes ago, Brad said:

It's a made for TV event.  Not made for you fans.

It showed