Herald Tribune: Swamp snub for USF fans?

[USFishin]

Swamp snub for USF fans?

Finding tickets for the big game in Gainesville is no easy task

By Robert Eckhart

Published: Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

South Florida Bulls fans root for a 13-year-old football team, and yes, they have a chip on their shoulders after a decade of being snubbed by Miami, Florida State and the powerhouse Florida Gators.

The newest slight is the measly 6,000 tickets that the University of Florida gave to the visiting Bulls for Saturday's game, the first-ever Gators-Bulls matchup.

After 1,300 tickets were set aside for students, and the athletic department got its 1,300 tickets, that left about 3,100 for fans.

The result: less than 10 percent of the 23,500 Bulls season ticket holders got a chance to buy a pair of tickets cheap through USF. The rest are either watching on TV or making their own arrangements.

"I think it's this haughty attitude that UF has," says Mitch Rebenstorf, a high school English teacher and USF alumnus who already has to put up with a colleague who is a fanatical Gator fan. Her office is littered with UF paraphernalia, including an autographed Tim Tebow poster.

"She probably prays to it every day," Rebenstorf says.

Bulls fans are used to being outnumbered, but Saturday's game will take it to a whole new level, with upwards of 90,000 expected to pack Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.

The No. 8-ranked Gators are 16 1/2-point favorites over the unranked Bulls. The winner will have bragging rights until 2015, when the teams are scheduled to play again at Florida.

Setting aside emotions, the Bulls' allotment of 4,400 resale tickets is not miserly by college football standards. It is more than the 3,400 that visiting teams typically get in the Big East conference.

By comparison, Florida State is getting 5,000 resale tickets for Saturday's marquee matchup with Oklahoma.

University of Florida alumnus Jon Lee says the Gator Nation has no spite for the Bulls.

"As Gators, we always pull for USF when we're not playing them," says Lee, managing partner of a Sarasota financial management firm.

And as for the "haughty attitude," Lee suspects it is a misunderstanding.

"I think we Gators do have a swagger. That's part of what makes the Gator Nation great. We do not mean to be disrespectful."

The contract between the Gators and the Bulls was signed in 2002, the year after the Bulls moved up from Division I-AA football (now the Football Championship Subdivision). At that time, South Florida was happy for a chance to play Florida anywhere.

A spokesman for the University of Florida said 6,000 tickets is comparable to the amount given to other teams that UF does not play every year.

On the other hand, 6,000 tickets is also a lot fewer than Bulls fans got last year from Florida State (11,300) and Miami (10,600).

Instead of paying as little as $55 apiece for tickets that allow them to sit together in a block, Bulls fans are shopping for tickets online that start at $70 for seats in the nosebleed section.

Finding four seats together will take some kind of miracle.

On Monday the price for two seats next to each other jumped from $75 to $85 on the popular ticket sales site Stubhub.com, likely driven by a rush of optimistic Bulls fans heartened by Florida's poor play on Saturday. The Las Vegas betting line opened at 191/2 points and went down to 161/2 after a poor offensive showing.

Rebenstorf is building momentum, too.

He has enlisted a few students and has put together some gold-and-green decorations that they will spring on that Gator-loving teacher with the poster of Saint Timmy. And he is telling stories about the last time the Bulls played a team led by Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer's Bowling Green team was ranked No. 25 in 2002, when he brought his team to Tampa.

"He came in here thinking he'd walk with a victory," Rebenstorf says. Instead, the Bulls won, 29 to 7, "and he was ticked."

"I think he's really taking this game serious."

Link

[IncrediBULL]

UF isn't Bowling Green. 

And for the attitude, they can have that after 2 NC's in FB and 1 in BB in the past 5 seasons.  Not to mention alll of the SEC Titles and NC's in other sports. 

As for attitude, their is a waiting list for UF tickets, so of course there isn't much to be had by USF fans.  It isn't that they are slighting USF, they are that good that they can sell out all of their games.  UF season ticket holders are substantial and therefore there are no tickets left to any game.  Only a small allotment to the opposing team are made available. 

Article fails.

[Fold FB Invest in BB]

"I think we Gators do have a swagger. That's part of what makes the Gator Nation great. We do not mean to be disrespectful."

I think Miami has trademarked the word swagger. Perhaps the word he was looking for was arrogant.

[Dogma]

"I think we Gators do have a swagger. That's part of what makes the Gator Nation great. We do not mean to be disrespectful."

I think Miami has trademarked the word swagger. Perhaps the word he was looking for was arrogant.

THIS

[bull2bull]

UF isn't Bowling Green. 

And for the attitude, they can have that after 2 NC's in FB and 1 in BB in the past 5 seasons.  Not to mention all of the SEC Titles and NC's in other sports. 

As for attitude, their is a waiting list for UF tickets, so of course there isn't much to be had by USF fans.  It isn't that they are slighting USF, they are that good that they can sell out all of their games.  UF season ticket holders are substantial and therefore there are no tickets left to any game.  Only a small allotment to the opposing team are made available. 

Article fails.

Dude, your everything "Pro-Gator" is getting incredibly annoying. I can't believe you are going to the game but then you revealed that your sitting with the rest of your Gator fans. I see you have picked them to destroy the Bulls in the pick contest. It does not matter that you are a "realist", "negative-nancy", "debbie-downer" or just a plain Gator, but why do you come on a Bull's Fan Message Board and claim to be a Bull's Fan. You would think that after Auburn, FSU and last week's Gator Game where they looked like poo in all facets of the game except their corners (that they lost one to injury), that you would see the light and believe there is hope....Oh well, don't get the blue and orange paint in your eyes on Saturday.

[South_Florida_Flip]

I don't think anyone on this board would complain if we routinely sold out RJS and had only 6,000 to give to visiting fans. i know I wouldn't

[mikebeau]

**** the gators

[IncrediBULL]

UF isn't Bowling Green. 

And for the attitude, they can have that after 2 NC's in FB and 1 in BB in the past 5 seasons.  Not to mention all of the SEC Titles and NC's in other sports. 

As for attitude, their is a waiting list for UF tickets, so of course there isn't much to be had by USF fans.  It isn't that they are slighting USF, they are that good that they can sell out all of their games.  UF season ticket holders are substantial and therefore there are no tickets left to any game.  Only a small allotment to the opposing team are made available. 

Article fails.

Dude, your everything "Pro-Gator" is getting incredibly annoying. I can't believe you are going to the game but then you revealed that your sitting with the rest of your Gator fans. I see you have picked them to destroy the Bulls in the pick contest. It does not matter that you are a "realist", "negative-nancy", "debbie-downer" or just a plain Gator, but why do you come on a Bull's Fan Message Board and claim to be a Bull's Fan. You would think that after Auburn, FSU and last week's Gator Game where they looked like poo in all facets of the game except their corners (that they lost one to injury), that you would see the light and believe there is hope....Oh well, don't get the blue and orange paint in your eyes on Saturday.

Whatever you want to believe.  If you look at the "pick em" contest, nearly half of our USF fans have picked UF.  It is not a pick of "who" you want to win but "who you think" will win.  I guess all of those "realists" are also USF Bulls Haters??  Get real.

And you don't know crap about me or how much I support USF.  For instance, I have been on this message board for nearly a decade, twice as long as you, and have over 4 k posts (about 25 times the amount you have).  Review my posting history before you say I don't support USF, and you'll notice that 98% are positive about USF.  Notice I donate to this board to do my part in keeping it operational, and am a Bulls Backer member too.

If my set of 8 FB season tickets (since day 1), BB season tickets, Alumni Assn lifetime membership for me and spouse, annual athletic contributions for nearly 15 years, attendance at other USF events, 7 years of volunteering for the Alumni Assn, 3 USF degrees between me and the wife, kids attendance at USF summer camps, ownership of at least 100+ items that have USF Bulls on it -  doesn't count for being a USF fan, then I suspect you can rule out 99% of the people on this board who have done a lot less to support USF than I.  But no need to get into a pissing contest on the "I did this and that", just wanted to set that record straight.

Sitting with relatives who could get me a full set of tickets for my family does not make me a traitor.  My whole group will be wearing Green and Gold.  We will cheer on USF.  We will be said if USF loses. 

As for the UF Tickets, which was what my post was about, my reply was that UF isn't Bowling Green, and anyone with half a brain knows that if we brought 15k to Tally 5 hours away, that 6k tix isn't going to cover our fans, but that is because UF SELLS THEIR GAMES OUT with THEIR fans.  We helped sell out the Doak.  Florida Field would sell out if they were playing FAU or FAMU. 

So, Bull2Bull, quit your whining.

[GatorMarc]

I don't think anyone on this board would complain if we routinely sold out RJS and had only 6,000 to give to visiting fans. i know I wouldn't

And UF allowed anyone to buy any extra available tickets as well.

It's not like in 2001, where UF came to USF to play basketball, and USF refused to sell tickets to non-boosters to make sure that too many Gators didn't get in.

[South_Florida_Flip]

It's not like in 2001, where UF came to USF to play basketball, and USF refused to sell tickets to non-boosters to make sure that too many Gators didn't get in.

That game was part of a mini plan package, so "non-boosters" could have bought it. Individual tickets did go on sale the week before the game.

Don't try and act like UF doesn't do things like that. USF received less tickets than and SEC program does.