FAN FEST WAS AWESOME!!

[BullGrad95]

They did have a couple of things for the kids near the south end zone.  My girls did the blow up field goal kick, run by the cheerleaders, and had their faces painted by the sundolls.  I also saw many of the players tossing around footballs and doing "races" with the kids.  I was there until about 5:45 pm and there were plenty of schedule posters in the stadium, just south of where the lines were formed for the autographs. 

All in all, for being the first time off campus, I thought it was a great event.  My girls, 3, and 1 1/2 loved seeing the "football guys" running around and loved talking with the cheerleaders/sundolls.  I was surprised by the lack of remaining season tickets.  There were very few "tags" remaining around the stadium.  Looking forward to a few tweaks, and a great time again next year.  In the 17 years that I've been associated with USF (student/alum), this was one of the better events that the athletic department has put on.

[puc86]

The face painting and tattoos were flanked by the merchandise tent and the inflatable goal posts. Sorry you missed it but there were also plenty of posters located there as well.  I thought it was a nice first effort, but of course there can always be improvements. My favorite part of the day was having my two year old son yell at Grothe for signing his jersey because "you are not allowed to do that, you can't write on clothes." The low points for me were the heat and the college kids that told the children in front of me that they could not continue in the line towards Grothe, Williams, Jenkins and Moffit and that they would have to go to the back of a new secondary line. When the kids told them that they felt they should be able to continue in the line as they had for the entire length of the team the college kids told the preteens that they were bigger than them so they could not do anything about it. At this point I explained to all involved that the kids would not be going to the back of any other line and that if there was a problem with this I would be happy to wear the college kids out because they were certainly not bigger than me. The kids that I had never met before got to continue in line but for the rest of the day I had to hear my two year old say "ya daddy we are going to wear them out" and it made me feel like a bad parent :'(.  I am not one to say that adults should not get autographs, especially not at an event such as this, but there is no need to be rude to kids that have been obviously standing in line in order to get them. As all have pointed out I found the players to be very gracious and happy to engage the fans in conversation, posing for pictures and signing autographs. Overall I found FAD to be quite nice and I look foward to seeing the improvements that will be made to it in the future.

[bullsmania]

Here is a small video of before and while entering.  I lost track of video taping after I actually got inside.

[theman123]

man it was great!!

i got a few nice pictures that im gonna post up on my sig.

but i had a great first experience. 

[Mama_Bull]

Hitting the first table up on the concourse after exiting the escalator, they were selling the 2007 Media Guides.  This is the truth, would you BULLIEVE, they said they would only accept credit cards or a check for purchasing the book.  Is that insane or what? 

WELL, my hubby asked for the "man in charge" and said to him "What, you don't accept CASH"?  He said it is policy.  Well, anyway after a lot of persuasion he took our $$$$$. 

Great move, by the way, managed to get the players to sign the guide by their pictures/bios.

A great day, and would have been better had it not been quite so hot, and they offered water on the field.

[Boomer]

Thanks ET for the picture of Grothe with my son and I.  Didn't know it was you until now.

[BDYZR]

Had to teach the girls in the concession stand how to draw a good beer.

After that it was a great day!

GO BULLS!

[RandyGator]

I don't want to go against the popular opinion, but I was very disappointed with the entire set up.

Waiting on gates to open, no Cheerleaders or Sundolls came to to "mingle" this would have been good.  Rocky finally did come out.

Lack of any kind of organization to get the magnets, posters, etc.

Newspaper article said the Cheerleaders and Sundolls performed while we were waiting to enter ....  in NOT!!!!!!

What about a little Spirit!!!, No Band, No USF music over the PA, no Replays, Player Pics on the Scoreboard NBO Green & Gold (Why not have the Green and Gold Flags out around the stadium, I noticed they were not up as I drove up.  Tell the City something is going on!!!!

There was little to no info given out about what was happening, what was coming up, etc.

Scheduled on same day and similar time as the Lightning Fan Day (not sure who scheduled first)

Now don't get me wrong, this was a definiately a good thing for USF and it will grow, but it does have to be something more to bring in the fringe fan.  Us hard core would show up at the Dump and shovel trash just to meet our BULLS!!!!

Maybe go up and see what UF, FSU does, they put on a pretty good show.  We don't want to be them, but they do seem to have it organized.

[Paisa el Toro]

Well, considering this is the first time they do a Fan Fest at Ray Jay, and they decided to switch to this location not too long ago, I think this went as well as could be expected. Obviously, they'll take a lot of critiques into account and make it a much better event for years to come. What made me happy to be there was to actually be on the field (minus threats of tazering) and to see so many Bulls fans out there, particularly the young Bulls Fans. I could really sense yesterday that our fan base could turn into something truly magical.

[Don Toro]

Hitting the first table up on the concourse after exiting the escalator, they were selling the 2007 Media Guides.  This is the truth, would you BULLIEVE, they said they would only accept credit cards or a check for purchasing the book.  Is that insane or what? 

WELL, my hubby asked for the "man in charge" and said to him "What, you don't accept CASH"?  He said it is policy.  Well, anyway after a lot of persuasion he took our $$$$$. 

Great move, by the way, managed to get the players to sign the guide by their pictures/bios.

A great day, and would have been better had it not been quite so hot, and they offered water on the field.

Haven't you seen those Debit Card commercials?