ULA says pump issue on gaseous nitrogen pipeline needs more work. No new launch date yet on Delta IV Heavy.
SPORTS

Bonanno: How does FIT football fan enthusiasm rate in Year 3?

Chris Bonanno
FLORIDA TODAY

As we head toward the third season of competitive Florida Tech football, it's fair to ask if enthusiasm and support have waned as the novelty of the program wears off or if it's still going strong.

There are positive signs in many regards.

If Saturday's spring game was any indication, the enthusiasm among fans is actually growing. Unofficially, what appeared to be crowd greater than that which attended last year's spring game of close to 1,000 fans gathered to watch Florida Tech's spring football game on Saturday as the offense edged in the defense 33-28 in an exciting intra-squad contest.

According to Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech athletic director, the school wants to put greater emphasis on spring game crowds to encourage even greater turnouts.

"It has been such a great part of the community, football," said Jurgens. "And I think it's just going to grow. When you're establishing traditions, it's hard to establish a tradition at the beginning but I see our spring game as one of those traditions and one that we're going to work towards making it a great spring game but also a great event."

Offense scores late, pulls out win in FIT spring game

It also helps that the program appears to be evolving into a winner. In just its second season in existence, Florida Tech finished 6-5 overall and was very competitive in one of the toughest conferences in Division II. And with a wealth of talent and experience returning under coach Steve Engelhart, it's not out of the question that the team could challenge for a spot in the Division II playoffs, a distinction that would bring the school national acclaim.

"Winning's a very important part of sports," added Jurgens. "If our goal was just to do a sport and not be successful, I don't think we would have that much of a following, but we want to put our players and our teams in a position to do well nationally, if you will, and win a national championship."

But there are a couple of obstacles the program is trying to overcome.

In its second season, there was a decrease in both overall attendance and season tickets, perhaps due in part to the novelty wearing off. Additionally, the Florida Tech student body hasn't always been known for its school spirit or willingness to be active in school-related activities.

So what can be done to attract more fans?

Both fans and Jurgens agreed that winning would help, but the "entertainment factor" around the game also is being promoted.

To that end, there is a tailgate at the school prior to each game where fans can hang out, grill and play games. There are also booths where merchandise and food are sold at games in addition to the usual things to add to the ambiance of a college football such as bands, cheerleaders and mascots.

"We want to do more than just have a game out here. We do want to have some entertainment value out here," said Jurgens.

FIT has also held special giveaways at games as well.

"It didn't hurt us last year when one of the fans won an Audi car," said Jurgens.

One concern for Florida Tech football may have been competing games sapping away attendance. The good news is, at least among fans at the spring game, it didn't appear as though game times in similar slots opposite popular Division I state teams such as Florida, Florida State, Miami and UCF really made much of a difference.

"We typically will listen to it," said Dianna Hetzel of Indialantic, an ardent Florida State fan. "My husband will be listening to it while we're hanging here (…)This has kind of taken precedence over that. We still love that and enjoy it and are always focused on it but we do this and we videotape that."

"We'll watch the Division I game on our phone," said Chuck Keith, with an organized group called "Panther Tailgating that organizes its outings both at home games and sometimes on the road.

But one thing the school could do to raise attendance, though much if not all of that is out of their hands, is to push for games to be played at night. The sentiment at the tailgate seemed to be that night games were preferable, and not just to beat the heat that generally sticks around on the Space Coast for much of the college football season.

"Definitely night games are better," added Keith. "If you have a 2 o'clock game, it's really short-lived (referencing the tailgate)."

In short, Jurgens wants to get to a point where a scene of a crowd of 5,500, which was the number that attended the team's first game in 2013 against Stetson, is repeated.

"When we had our first game here, we had over 5,500 people in attendance and I don't see why that's not a possibility for every game," added Jurgens. "The entertainment aspect, the conference that we're playing in has some top quality teams, the way our team has performed in a short period of time really looks great for the future."

Contact Bonanno at 321-242-3662, cbonanno@floridatoday.com or follow Chris on Twitter @FTChrisBonanno.