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Post by unafan on Oct 14, 2018 8:58:20 GMT -6
Enjoyed the game and tailgate yesterday. I noticed that they are keeping the lights on through the game up in the old baseball field area that is now being used for tailgating on the south end of the stadium. There were ALOT of people up in that area through most of the game. Good win for North Alabama on homecoming. Fun to watch the triple option (as long as it wasn't too successful) that Mississippi College runs. Our Defense responded to it well. Roar Lions !
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Post by brandon on Oct 14, 2018 9:23:50 GMT -6
What about those helmets?
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Post by unafied on Oct 14, 2018 9:48:49 GMT -6
What about those helmets? I loved them. Wish we had went full throwback to the 90s, with matching jerseys and pants.
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Post by tuna85 on Oct 14, 2018 15:35:35 GMT -6
I’d really like to see attendance climb up to at least the 12k range. I’m not sure if it would make a huge difference in the push for a new stadium, but it might help. Hopefully having an all-FCS schedule will work in our favor next year. Nonetheless I thought it was a decent crowd. Quiet, of course. Not sure what it will take to change that. I’ll say this. I think the tailgating atmosphere is the best it’s ever been. While Braly needs a lot of improvements, I do enjoy the overall “feeling” outside the stadium. I’m not saying a new stadium wouldn’t be able to have the same (or better). But new stadiums seem to just have that “sterile” or corporate feeling, you know? Braly feels like home. I almost wish we could somehow take complete control of it and completely redo it to our liking. Oh well. Sorry, not meaning to open that can of worms. I think having an all FCS schedule will help. 'Course that's just another opinion among many but, this just feels like a "in-between" season. Long wait till home games and then the delayed 1st game start because of lightning surely did not help. A suggestion for next year. When we are away, televise those games in the gym or someplace else on campus so the students can get a game feel and develop familiarity with the FCS opposition. Maybe work on some cheers, etc.... New stadium would be a plus. Not because it is new but because it is on campus. Getting game day activity on campus is a great seller for the University itself. People and potential new students are able to walk and see campus facilities which are not closed for the weekend. The Chik fil A and other eateries will find some of their biggest sales days on football weekends. Have other football games of the day on TV in a gathering area for folks who are coming in from out of town for our game. They can watch these games on campus while waiting on our game to start at the stadium. Make the campus a destination place for the morning and afternoon hours prior to our game starting at the stadium. Having people in the area, walking distance from downtown, would be a big boon for downtown Florence.
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Post by unafied on Oct 14, 2018 16:02:27 GMT -6
I’d really like to see attendance climb up to at least the 12k range. I’m not sure if it would make a huge difference in the push for a new stadium, but it might help. Hopefully having an all-FCS schedule will work in our favor next year. Nonetheless I thought it was a decent crowd. Quiet, of course. Not sure what it will take to change that. I’ll say this. I think the tailgating atmosphere is the best it’s ever been. While Braly needs a lot of improvements, I do enjoy the overall “feeling” outside the stadium. I’m not saying a new stadium wouldn’t be able to have the same (or better). But new stadiums seem to just have that “sterile” or corporate feeling, you know? Braly feels like home. I almost wish we could somehow take complete control of it and completely redo it to our liking. Oh well. Sorry, not meaning to open that can of worms. I think having an all FCS schedule will help. 'Course that's just another opinion among many but, this just feels like a "in-between" season. Long wait till home games and then the delayed 1st game start because of lightning surely did not help. A suggestion for next year. When we are away, televise those games in the gym or someplace else on campus so the students can get a game feel and develop familiarity with the FCS opposition. Maybe work on some cheers, etc.... New stadium would be a plus. Not because it is new but because it is on campus. Getting game day activity on campus is a great seller for the University itself. People and potential new students are able to walk and see campus facilities which are not closed for the weekend. The Chik fil A and other eateries will find some of their biggest sales days on football weekends. Have other football games of the day on TV in a gathering area for folks who are coming in from out of town for our game. They can watch these games on campus while waiting on our game to start at the stadium. Make the campus a destination place for the morning and afternoon hours prior to our game starting at the stadium. Having people in the area, walking distance from downtown, would be a big boon for downtown Florence. Oh I agree. There’s no doubt that gameday activities will be better if/when there is a stadium on campus. At the parade yesterday I was actually thinking how nice it would be just to stroll up Court Street, right through campus, and to the stadium. I feel like it will be a big step towards legitimizing us as a D1 program - when we stop having to share a “high school stadium”. I tend to be a sentimental kind of guy, I guess. I was there at Braly as a older kid and teenager during the run in the 90s. It’s special. And I enjoy what some have been able to do with Spirit Hill and now the “Spirit Quad” while the university has been kept from making updates to the stadium they’d probably like to have. (It’s 2018 and we don’t have a video board. There are high schools that have video boards!)
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Post by brandon on Oct 14, 2018 16:30:00 GMT -6
The new stadium is in the plans. But we as fans have to show support for the stadium, not just saying we want it. We have to show up. This year is a weird year for attendance, but next year, they will expect 10k+ per home game averages. I know I was told that if the new stadium is built, it will be hovering around the 20k seat mark, so we have to do some growing between now and then.
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Post by tuna85 on Oct 14, 2018 20:05:27 GMT -6
The new stadium is in the plans. But we as fans have to show support for the stadium, not just saying we want it. We have to show up. This year is a weird year for attendance, but next year, they will expect 10k+ per home game averages. I know I was told that if the new stadium is built, it will be hovering around the 20k seat mark, so we have to do some growing between now and then. Brandon, I know fans will need to show support for the stadium and so forth...but this issue has been out there for several months now, especially after the negotiations for our current contract for Braly. I cannot begin to tell you the disappointment I have in, being able to do math, knowing that we will in the end have to negotiate another contract for Braly. Why do I say knowing? There is no schedule of timing. If there is a plan, it is not transparent. There should be a schedule for timing to serve as a goal for the community, students, alumni, fans, etc. No matter how deep the pockets of any person(s), corporation(s), and other entity, a 20K stadium is a heck of a lot of money and you cannot get it done without the buy in of Joe General Fan. Joe General Fan has not even been approached about any type of fund raising effort for a stadium....period. Even if there is not a clue of an idea of where to put the stadium, there is knowledge of the need. Fund raising should be happening now and not after we have wasted two to three years trying to figure out exactly what we are doing with a further two to three years on top of that for construction. Fund raising should be happening parallel to and not linear to planning and construction. UNA has a mighty fine Business School...maybe a bone should be thrown to them to do some Program Management for this stadium project. The use of words such as "if the stadium is built" and "have to do some growing" speaks volumes to Joe General Fan. Not picking on you. You are not the "school" or whatever entity of the school is taking this project on. Thing is, if there is no leadership, direction, and show of commitment from whatever school entity is taking this on...well Joe General Fan will not have anyplace to focus their efforts. Folks want to encourage fans to show up...make them a part of the process of having a home for our football team...give them a vision and not just the same old same old.
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Post by tuna85 on Oct 14, 2018 20:12:23 GMT -6
I think having an all FCS schedule will help. 'Course that's just another opinion among many but, this just feels like a "in-between" season. Long wait till home games and then the delayed 1st game start because of lightning surely did not help. A suggestion for next year. When we are away, televise those games in the gym or someplace else on campus so the students can get a game feel and develop familiarity with the FCS opposition. Maybe work on some cheers, etc.... New stadium would be a plus. Not because it is new but because it is on campus. Getting game day activity on campus is a great seller for the University itself. People and potential new students are able to walk and see campus facilities which are not closed for the weekend. The Chik fil A and other eateries will find some of their biggest sales days on football weekends. Have other football games of the day on TV in a gathering area for folks who are coming in from out of town for our game. They can watch these games on campus while waiting on our game to start at the stadium. Make the campus a destination place for the morning and afternoon hours prior to our game starting at the stadium. Having people in the area, walking distance from downtown, would be a big boon for downtown Florence. Oh I agree. There’s no doubt that gameday activities will be better if/when there is a stadium on campus. At the parade yesterday I was actually thinking how nice it would be just to stroll up Court Street, right through campus, and to the stadium. I feel like it will be a big step towards legitimizing us as a D1 program - when we stop having to share a “high school stadium”. I tend to be a sentimental kind of guy, I guess. I was there at Braly as a older kid and teenager during the run in the 90s. It’s special. And I enjoy what some have been able to do with Spirit Hill and now the “Spirit Quad” while the university has been kept from making updates to the stadium they’d probably like to have. (It’s 2018 and we don’t have a video board. There are high schools that have video boards!) Unafied, with your paragraph on strolling up Court Street....to the stadium, you have captured the "vision" of what is possible for UNA and the city of Florence. The synergies that are there to be grasped or to be left fallow from spinning around.
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Post by brandon on Oct 14, 2018 21:26:33 GMT -6
The new stadium is in the plans. But we as fans have to show support for the stadium, not just saying we want it. We have to show up. This year is a weird year for attendance, but next year, they will expect 10k+ per home game averages. I know I was told that if the new stadium is built, it will be hovering around the 20k seat mark, so we have to do some growing between now and then. Brandon, I know fans will need to show support for the stadium and so forth...but this issue has been out there for several months now, especially after the negotiations for our current contract for Braly. I cannot begin to tell you the disappointment I have in, being able to do math, knowing that we will in the end have to negotiate another contract for Braly. Why do I say knowing? There is no schedule of timing. If there is a plan, it is not transparent. There should be a schedule for timing to serve as a goal for the community, students, alumni, fans, etc. No matter how deep the pockets of any person(s), corporation(s), and other entity, a 20K stadium is a heck of a lot of money and you cannot get it done without the buy in of Joe General Fan. Joe General Fan has not even been approached about any type of fund raising effort for a stadium....period. Even if there is not a clue of an idea of where to put the stadium, there is knowledge of the need. Fund raising should be happening now and not after we have wasted two to three years trying to figure out exactly what we are doing with a further two to three years on top of that for construction. Fund raising should be happening parallel to and not linear to planning and construction. UNA has a mighty fine Business School...maybe a bone should be thrown to them to do some Program Management for this stadium project. The use of words such as "if the stadium is built" and "have to do some growing" speaks volumes to Joe General Fan. Not picking on you. You are not the "school" or whatever entity of the school is taking this project on. Thing is, if there is no leadership, direction, and show of commitment from whatever school entity is taking this on...well Joe General Fan will not have anyplace to focus their efforts. Folks want to encourage fans to show up...make them a part of the process of having a home for our football team...give them a vision and not just the same old same old. I agree, and I have talked to Linder about funding the project, he liked the idea I came up with and passed it around. Right now there hasn't been anything publicly announced about the project because some things have to be done in other areas before we can address the stadium. Part was addressed in the Times Daily article about the beach volleyball courts, when they said they have plans on moving the baseball stadium to Cox Creek and making that area the spring sports complex. All that has to be done before the football stadium and soccer complex gets addressed. The part about fans showing up, is more about interest than money. I was informed that since the announcement of moving to D1, there have been numerous emails saying they (whomever sent the emails) would show up to more games if the stadium situation was better. So there is that.
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Post by unalions on Oct 14, 2018 22:01:40 GMT -6
Brandon, I know fans will need to show support for the stadium and so forth...but this issue has been out there for several months now, especially after the negotiations for our current contract for Braly. I cannot begin to tell you the disappointment I have in, being able to do math, knowing that we will in the end have to negotiate another contract for Braly. Why do I say knowing? There is no schedule of timing. If there is a plan, it is not transparent. There should be a schedule for timing to serve as a goal for the community, students, alumni, fans, etc. No matter how deep the pockets of any person(s), corporation(s), and other entity, a 20K stadium is a heck of a lot of money and you cannot get it done without the buy in of Joe General Fan. Joe General Fan has not even been approached about any type of fund raising effort for a stadium....period. Even if there is not a clue of an idea of where to put the stadium, there is knowledge of the need. Fund raising should be happening now and not after we have wasted two to three years trying to figure out exactly what we are doing with a further two to three years on top of that for construction. Fund raising should be happening parallel to and not linear to planning and construction. UNA has a mighty fine Business School...maybe a bone should be thrown to them to do some Program Management for this stadium project. The use of words such as "if the stadium is built" and "have to do some growing" speaks volumes to Joe General Fan. Not picking on you. You are not the "school" or whatever entity of the school is taking this project on. Thing is, if there is no leadership, direction, and show of commitment from whatever school entity is taking this on...well Joe General Fan will not have anyplace to focus their efforts. Folks want to encourage fans to show up...make them a part of the process of having a home for our football team...give them a vision and not just the same old same old. I agree, and I have talked to Linder about funding the project, he liked the idea I came up with and passed it around. Right now there hasn't been anything publicly announced about the project because some things have to be done in other areas before we can address the stadium. Part was addressed in the Times Daily article about the beach volleyball courts, when they said they have plans on moving the baseball stadium to Cox Creek and making that area the spring sports complex. All that has to be done before the football stadium and soccer complex gets addressed. The part about fans showing up, is more about interest than money. I was informed that since the announcement of moving to D1, there have been numerous emails saying they (whomever sent the emails) would show up to more games if the stadium situation was better. So there is that. Just talked about the Cox Creek stuff with my mom today after she mentioned a lot of work trucks being there recently.
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Post by unafied on Oct 15, 2018 7:09:40 GMT -6
I agree, and I have talked to Linder about funding the project, he liked the idea I came up with and passed it around. Right now there hasn't been anything publicly announced about the project because some things have to be done in other areas before we can address the stadium. Part was addressed in the Times Daily article about the beach volleyball courts, when they said they have plans on moving the baseball stadium to Cox Creek and making that area the spring sports complex. All that has to be done before the football stadium and soccer complex gets addressed. The part about fans showing up, is more about interest than money. I was informed that since the announcement of moving to D1, there have been numerous emails saying they (whomever sent the emails) would show up to more games if the stadium situation was better. So there is that. Just talked about the Cox Creek stuff with my mom today after she mentioned a lot of work trucks being there recently. I believe that is for the beach volleyball... court? Stadium? Not sure what the right word for it would be. We start play in the spring.
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Post by unafied on Oct 15, 2018 7:20:26 GMT -6
Oh I agree. There’s no doubt that gameday activities will be better if/when there is a stadium on campus. At the parade yesterday I was actually thinking how nice it would be just to stroll up Court Street, right through campus, and to the stadium. I feel like it will be a big step towards legitimizing us as a D1 program - when we stop having to share a “high school stadium”. I tend to be a sentimental kind of guy, I guess. I was there at Braly as a older kid and teenager during the run in the 90s. It’s special. And I enjoy what some have been able to do with Spirit Hill and now the “Spirit Quad” while the university has been kept from making updates to the stadium they’d probably like to have. (It’s 2018 and we don’t have a video board. There are high schools that have video boards!) Unafied, with your paragraph on strolling up Court Street....to the stadium, you have captured the "vision" of what is possible for UNA and the city of Florence. The synergies that are there to be grasped or to be left fallow from spinning around. Yeah, if you look at what Court Street (and really all of downtown) was 15 or 20 years ago, and where it is today, that's a tremendous change. It's a destination. Good restaurants, actual interesting places to shop, etc. Look at successful college towns about the size of Florence, and they all have that hip downtown that students like to spend time in. It doesn't have to be a street full of bars, just places people actually want to go. My point being, we are this close to finally having downtown Florence become more of a true "college town" instead of a town that happens to have a university. And that's not a bad thing. Florence has struggled to find an identity for years without realizing (or wanting to realize) the best and easiest one to shoot for was right there under their nose. Now obviously there are people that would probably rather see UNA stay off in its own little world. But those are probably the same folks that wanted the Shoals to be a "retirement community"
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Post by roaringsince96 on Oct 16, 2018 7:00:21 GMT -6
Before we put this one totally behind us and move on to our next game...spoke with someone that sat on the visitor side. I asked her how the home crowd sounded during the game? She said we sounded good from the visitor side. She said she wished our band was a little less regimented. She said they all sat a certain way and only made rehearsed sounds, no spontaneous cheers or music. She thought the band was very good at the rehearsed things, just wanted to see them get excited. Good points, glad they came, really big Bama fans, so was a little surprised to hear they made the game from Decatur.
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Post by unafied on Oct 16, 2018 7:19:30 GMT -6
Before we put this one totally behind us and move on to our next game...spoke with someone that sat on the visitor side. I asked her how the home crowd sounded during the game? She said we sounded good from the visitor side. She said she wished our band was a little less regimented. She said they all sat a certain way and only made rehearsed sounds, no spontaneous cheers or music. She thought the band was very good at the rehearsed things, just wanted to see them get excited. Good points, glad they came, really big Bama fans, so was a little surprised to hear they made the game from Decatur. Glad they made it! I've noticed that the band is quieter than they were years ago, and I think it comes down to the stadium piping in more music through the PA. I'm sure some think that's a good thing, some don't. I prefer to hear more marching band music when I'm at a football game, personally. So I do wish there were more original music/cheers, or even the band covering popular music. It does seem like a waste if all they do while sitting in the stands is play the fight song after a touchdown. Speaking of the fight song, they never seem to play the full version anymore, just the shortened part. I like singing the whole thing. Bring back the full song!
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Post by Lion2001 on Oct 21, 2018 14:02:30 GMT -6
Before we put this one totally behind us and move on to our next game...spoke with someone that sat on the visitor side. I asked her how the home crowd sounded during the game? She said we sounded good from the visitor side. She said she wished our band was a little less regimented. She said they all sat a certain way and only made rehearsed sounds, no spontaneous cheers or music. She thought the band was very good at the rehearsed things, just wanted to see them get excited. Good points, glad they came, really big Bama fans, so was a little surprised to hear they made the game from Decatur. Glad they made it! I've noticed that the band is quieter than they were years ago, and I think it comes down to the stadium piping in more music through the PA. I'm sure some think that's a good thing, some don't. I prefer to hear more marching band music when I'm at a football game, personally. So I do wish there were more original music/cheers, or even the band covering popular music. It does seem like a waste if all they do while sitting in the stands is play the fight song after a touchdown. Speaking of the fight song, they never seem to play the full version anymore, just the shortened part. I like singing the whole thing. Bring back the full song! Yeah... as an alumnus of the band, stuff we played in the stands was sort of an afterthought. We spent most of our time on absolutely perfecting the heck out of what we did on the field. The result is that when they go to marching competitions to perform, they absolutely blow the minds of band kids AND directors—who encourage their kids to go there. They have really gotten good about including fun modern elements into the shows as well that get a regular audience into it as well. I was at a marching competition yesterday, and the new closing segment where the robot voice counts down and the drum line launches into a funk groove while the band dances made people stand up and start screaming! That’s why as a division 2 band they had over 200 people (which is unheard of) and were asked to play alongside Ohio State at the Bands of America National Championship. People outside of the band world often don’t understand how amazingly good they are... especially those who just look at what’s going on in the bleachers. I do wish they’d maybe spend a half hour a week on some short stands tunes, but I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But I’ll take the trade-off. They are the cleanest playing, best in-tune, best-marching marching band in the southeast. Maybe further than that... and they have recruited thousands of students (probable more than any other single thing about the university) over the years who are now Lion alums.
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