Close the upper bowl again

[TherapyBull]

Agreed actual attendance is hardly ever near lower bowl capacity. Make the lower bowl a better atmosphere, try to get the crowd more involved. Let the players feel the energy. Put a premium on tickets. Accept that the program has regressed. None of this scattered fans around the stadium and multiple pockets of empty seats in the lower bowl.

[Ghost]

Agree 100% Love the idea of the tarp actually.

[atl86bull]

At least we are not Miami... http://sports.yahoo....799--ncaaf.html

Edited September 16, 2012 by atl86bull

[Boomer]

I think this idea should really be looked at the end of the season, although I believe it would be admitting that our growth as a program has stalled. For the last few years I think USF was feeling that people and businesses would eventually come around with the team continuing to make strides and they probably didn't want to sell seats cheap in the lower bowl and then have to grandfather them if later they could charge more.

If we don't do well this year (and God forbid not even make it to a bowl game) then USF better do whatever they can to keep the borderline fans in their seats - even if it means better seats.

[BullFan98]

Great idea, probably too expensive for USF to accomplish.

[Rizman]

Probably is having season ticket holders who do not show up on Thursday night. Ton's of red seats open on the home side looking at it from the visitor side.

[WoolyBully]

Make the lower bowl a better atmosphere, try to get the crowd more involved. Let the players feel the energy. Put a premium on tickets. Accept that the program has regressed.

If we accept that the team has regressed - or even plateaued - we would pretty much have to accept that, since we are talking about a football game, the difficulty associated with making the lower bowl a better atmosphere and getting the crowd more involved. A premium on tickets? To see what? If this program does not make considerable strides, season tickets sales will decline. Remember, TPA is, and has always been, a bandwagon town so there is a finite amount of poor performance that will be accepted before fans start 'exercising other options'. The best way to improve the atmosphere is by putting a winning team on the field against quality opponents. Just look back at the years of USF basketball and the complaints about an empty dome and the great seats (held by season ticket holders) that went empty season after season. Why? Because everyone, in particular alumni, want to see a winning program. I don't know anything about the upper bowl...are there low-cost season tickets up there (e.g. no donation required)? I think the university is doing everything possible to get people through the turnstile. If they're not gonna cough up a donation, maybe they'll buy the cheap seats. If you take away the cheap seats, don't think those folks are necessarily going to whip out the checkbook to move downstairs.

[cmhatter]

there is obviously plenty of room to have cheap seats downstairs... see the chick fil a section...

[mviusa]

Probably is having season ticket holders who do not show up on Thursday night. Ton's of red seats open on the home side looking at it from the visitor side.

.

Sure attendance is lowered by weeknight game, but why are you so sure that all those empty seats were sold as season tickets? How many people in the high donation sections are actually paying the current (over-valued) donation levels? How many $100 donors are grandfathered into $1000 seats.

[cmhatter]

1k seats should not have anyone grandfathered in.

athletics should move them to another section