If Rob Suglia gets his way, the UB football team is going to have the support of a rowdy 12th man as they attempt to win their home opener Thursday night against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.
Suglia, UB's student relations coordinator, is predicting that the student attendance record of 6,144 set at last year's home opener against Rutgers University is going to fall Thursday night.
"We're not only going break it, we're going to put that old record to shame," Suglia said. "We have every single promotion in place. We have the most attractive promotions we have ever had. And we have a good student body that's going to embrace this."
"It really is a great feeling when you walk up to a student and talk to them about the first game - a lot of them already know about it. It's kind of like a buzz around campus, the awareness is out there, people know what's going on."
So why is Suglia so confident? Because he has tacked on a long list of student promotions - free to students, to take place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the tennis courts near UB Stadium - to the game itself.
"I think that the student population is going to come out for this game because it's the thing to do on campus," Suglia said. "If not, they are going to be in their residence hall room all lonely, and we don't want that. They are going to come out to the game, have a great experience, and watch some UB football."
"I want to see blue and white. I want to see students standing up, cheering and screaming. I want to see them annoying the other team. I want to see them really support UB and our team."
UB senior tight end Chad Bartoszek echoed Suglia's sentiments as he stressed the importance of building a solid home field advantage.
"When you run out and there's 23,000 or 24,000 people, it's a whole different atmosphere, especially at UB," Bartoszek said. "People don't realize that (the UB Stadium) is one of the nicer stadiums . in the MAC especially. It's a beautiful stadium, and when there is people there the atmosphere is amazing."
Suglia said Diamond would not just be sitting around signing autographs behind a table.
"Dustin Diamond will be playing a large role in a lot of our student activities at that pre-game event location," Suglia said. "He'll be walking around talking to everyone. There's a top secret part of this that we can't really discuss, but let's just say that everyone who goes will have the chance to meet and see Screech. We have a plan for Mr. Diamond when he gets here. We will unveil this plan on Thursday night when 7,000 students are in attendance.
"You're not going to be unsatisfied when you leave (the game). We have so much stuff in place that it's incredible. I know my vocabulary is only like 52 words, but I'm searching for a word right now, and I can't describe what's going through my head right now with the atmosphere, the students and Screech."
While the Bulls have annually drawn well for their home opener, attendance tends to fall off as the season progresses. Suglia and Student Relations Assistant Casey Weishan will be looking into the reasons for the decline and trying to correct them during the 2002 season.
It would be easy to blame attendance problems late in the season on Buffalo's generally poor winning percentage, but Suglia said attendance could still be strong, even if the team struggles, as long as the students are entertained.
"I don't know if it's all about winning and losing," Suglia said. "I think that (winning) helps, but I also think that it's the atmosphere that we create and that's created by the students coming out and having a great time. Whether we win or lose, we still want them to have a great time."
"The job for us, the goal for our team, is to give them reason to keep coming back to the field and watching," Bartoszek said. "That's something that we're going to work on all season."
There are drawbacks, however, to boosting attendance by selling sideline shows rather than the football itself.
On Saturday, the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts enlisted the help of aggressive skater Tony Hawk, who will be performing at UB during halftime of the Bulls game Sept. 14 against UConn, to boost attendance for their game at Skydome against Montreal. The plan worked, as 23,642 fans set a new Argos attendance record. Unfortunately, most of them left after Hawk's performance at halftime, creating an awkward situation where the team had taken a back seat to their own halftime show.
"I don't see that happening. Everyone has been raving about (our football team)," Weishan said. "Coach Hofher thinks very positively towards the season and has a great recruiting class coming in. It's quality entertainment one way or another."
The Bulls have helped their own cause by attending orientation and traveling around in the Bulls Caravan to local events over the summer.
"They represent themselves well," Weishan said. "They attended the student bash and student picnic and met freshman and their families, transfers and their families and made them feel good about coming here.
"I think a big target is the new students. With the UB 101 classes that are going to be coming to the first game, they are really going to get to see firsthand how everything works, and I think that they are going to be our biggest supporters throughout the year."
Another possible cause of decline in attendance could be competition from other events in the area. UB's home opener usually takes place before the start of the NFL season, but as Buffalo's professional leagues heat up, the Bulls attendance has, in the past, cooled off.
Suglia, however, said the fact that fans have a choice of where to spend their entertainment dollar only pushes him and his staff to put together a quality experience for patrons.
"Our situation - being a very large market with a lot of other great things to do in the Buffalo area, and competing with other events - in a good way, it forces us to be more creative and to actually bring a better event," Suglia said.
"We're really trying to push the envelope a bit and increase student involvement at our athletic events. I really think this first game will show exactly what our students are capable of when they come out and support our team."
