I remember it as if it were last weekend–not a Saturday night in the autumn of 2007.
Along with two other couples, we were pumped and proud and reveling with a cause. We were among the 67,000 fans who had just witnessed USF’s 21-13 win over 5th-ranked West Virginia at Raymond James Stadium.
So this is what it’s like, we collectively thought. ESPN prime time. RayJay rocking. Another spike in the national rankings for the hard-charging Bulls.
It was easy to forget that college football in a pro town is always a challenge. As well as an excuse. But being good, we were graphically reminded, renders all of that moot–as 67,000 would attest. So would WVU, obviously not familiar with being USF cannon fodder.
We remained in our upper deck seats for a while just to savor the outcome and watch celebrating students vault onto the field in defiance of the public address announcer’s admonitions. The spirited descent on the down ramps was full of feel-good atmospherics.
It was a scene for the USF football ages.
But this euphoric outcome was more the exception than the rule. The USF football saga, now in its 19th season, has also included a new-stadium-of-its-own wish list that periodically surfaces when attendance dips or drops into the dumpster on Dale Mabry.
Last season, USF attendance was less than 20,000 a game. In 2007, it was 45,000. For last Saturday’s non-televised home-opening rout of FAMU, USF drew 30,000. It’s been a while since more than half of RayJay weren’t empty seats when the Bulls were playing.
USF could arguably do better with an on-campus or near-campus facility–especially with nearly 20 percent of its 32,000 undergraduates now USF residents. It’s not the commuter, “Drive-Thru U” it used to be.
“Whenever a football stadium is located on campus or adjacent to campus, the attendance is much more stable and consistent,” points out Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist, a USF alum. “It helps build on student life and, after school, alumni life.”
And in the best of all possible worlds, it would be preferable: uber convenient, Bulls-only home turf that doesn’t connote another tenant’s siege identity.
But there is this. There are better uses for “innovation district” real estate and limited capital, especially when you are privy to a Tampa facility that is good enough for multiple Super Bowls and good enough for the 2017 college football championship game. Plus, $25 million in RayJay upgrades are coming soon for what is already one of the premier stadiums in the country.
Frankly, there are better ways to gin up attendance–notably by winning.
USF was undefeated going into that West Virginia game in ’07, with a lot of buzz having been built from a road win earlier at Auburn. The last four years the Bulls have gone 4-8, 2-10, 3-9 and 5-7. Fans are now nostalgic for the Meineke Car Care and PoppaJohns.com bowl games that USF used to “settle” for.
The bottom line: recruiting, winning, turnstile counting.
County Commissioner Ken Hagan recently put it into the context that makes the most sense. “When you’ve got one of the worst Division I programs in the country and your attendance is falling by 25,000,” said Hagan, “your priority should be to improve those before you start seriously discussing a stadium.”