Florida Football: Three renovations Gator fans want for The Swamp

College football stadiums tend to be more rustic compared to their NFL counterparts. They tend to be older, as is the case with Florida football and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, and as a result, don’t have as many modern amenities.

But with the announcement that the University of Florida is officially going to move forward with a $400 million plan to upgrade The Swamp, there is a reality that some of the upgrades will go towards areas that most Gator fans will never get to experience.

And we here at Hail Florida Hail are a site for the people and have three things in mind that all Gator fans will benefit from.

Florida Football Upgrades: Shade

We get it, playing in Gainesville is supposed to be difficult for the opponents. It is supposed to be hot and miserable and provide an environment that weak Pac-12 teams can’t handle.

But if we are being honest, just because it is miserable for the players on the field doesn’t mean it has to be miserable for the fans.

As the stadium is set up now, fans can get shade during a day game if they sit on the alumni side. But if you sit on the student side or in the end zones, no shade you for.

This isn’t saying Florida needs a full-blown retractable roof, but something with the functionality of what they built at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, while being a little more aesthetically pleasing, would go a long way to making noon kickoffs in September a little more bearable.

Areas to mingle

When talking about the planned upgrades, Scott Stricklin said:

"“It has to be everything from how fans experience when they’re outside the stadium, when they walk through the gate, concourse, concession, restrooms, inside the seating bowl, new premium options, better premium options. But you also want to keep what’s special about it.”"

The last two pieces about better premium options are the real reason Florida is getting an upgrade. Gotta keep the big-money boosters happy.

But for the common fan, it would be nice to have more areas where fans could mill around and still keep an eye on the game.

Most baseball stadiums do this very well. Even Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, has great options to stand around and still watch the game.

Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Bucs, has the ability to mill around both endzones (well, they did before they built the temporary seating the accommodate Tom Brady).

Fix the sound system

Not to be mean to the fine folks that run Swamp Vision, but often times fans have no idea what is going on in the video packages because the sound system in the stadium is so muffled that fans can’t make out what is being said on the video.

I’m not a sound engineer, so I have no clue if it is a speaker issue or an acoustics issue.

But for $400 million, surely Florida football can find someone who will get to the root of the issue.