Photo by Paul Chapman

By Chris Bernhardt 

If you thought traffic coming into the Citrus Bowl for UCF's last home game against Akron was a little light, you were right. Then again, that’s a pretty good indication that most people wouldn't know that anyway, and apparently wouldn’t seem to mind if they did.

UCF played an Akron team that will be part of the conference it will play in next year. It was a team that had been talking smack all week long and even throughout the game. It was a team that had beaten the Knights on its own home turf just last season. And to top it off it was only a few days removed from the announcement that UCF would join the Mid-American Conference next season.

Total attendance: 15,779. Citrus Bowl seating capacity: 70,000. 

That figure is probably a little inflated. When the public address announcer relayed that number to what remained of the sparse crowd late in the fourth quarter, boos cascaded across the stadium. Not that it mattered; the people the jeers were directed at don’t seem to care enough to listen. No one expects the Golden Knights to sell out the massive Citrus Bowl, but it’s the continuation of a disturbing trend that gives a bleak forecast for the future. The NCAA is considering contracting Division I-A and UCF is a candidate for being sent back to Division II-A. Such a setback would be a death nail to a building program, but terrible support will only help make that closer to reality.

The homecoming game against UL-Monroe three weeks ago drew 23,001 people. Not exactly an eye-popping total for what’s supposed to be a big day of pageantry. The poor turnout became a point of discussion for one local sports columnist. It reflects a very low attitude toward something that any football player will say is very important.  

According to UCF quarterback Ryan Schneider, “It’s nice to come out there and see a lot of fans. We play at Clemson and Syracuse, places like that, you play in front of 80,000 people screaming it’s hard to audible.”

It’s also a bad sign for upcoming events. UCF will have many games against several MAC foes in the coming years. If Akron can’t draw a big crowd, how many people will show for Kent State? If UCF beats Toledo, how many will realize that’s a bigger win than Alabama last season?  

Many UCF students don’t seem to believe the football team is all that good. They seem to look only at the record and not the schedule. Until UCF beats more recognizable opponents, not necessarily better ones, this will continue to be a problem.  

Another problem is location. The Citrus Bowl is a good 15-20 minutes away from the campus via 417 and 408, two toll roads that will cost $2.50 going each way. It’s even longer if you want to go through the traffic and lights on Colonial Drive. Having a commuter stadium is a disadvantage schools like FSU and UF don’t have to deal with.  

“The location of the Citrus Bowl is kind of difficult (for the fans),” linebacker Tito Rodriguez said.  

“It’s nice to come out there and see a lot of fans. We play at Clemson and Syracuse, places like that, you play in front of 80,000 people screaming it’s hard to audible.”

It’s also the reflection of a community widely considered to be of the bandwagon variety. It should be noted that UCF outdrew the Orlando Magic’s recent home game against Seattle. Only 13,723 showed for that game, well under the capacity of the TD Waterhouse Centre. And the Magic is a team picked by many publications to win the NBA’s Eastern Conference, sporting two major stars in Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill. 

Whatever the reason fans haven’t shown for UCF’s home games, it will only get worse for UCF’s last game at the Citrus Bowl this season. They play UL-Lafayette, a lightly regarded team from Louisiana two days after Thanksgiving. Most students probably won’t be in town let alone at the game. And as fan support continues to suffer, it can have a huge negative effect on the team.  

“You got a lot fan support, that really boosts your team up,” Rodriguez said. “It’s just an energy that you can’t get from no where else.”  

If UCF doesn’t get that energy from its fans sometime, traffic won’t be the only thing that’s always light at the Citrus Bowl.