Season of Fandom

Local football fans are getting ready for their favorite season of the year.

As they debate wins and losses in the coming weeks, there are other questions to consider, too, when it comes to actually getting to the football games, such as: What can you bring inside the stadium and what do you have to leave in the car? Where do you park? What do you eat?

With Shoals high school play kicking off tonight, local school officials already have planned for this year's games.

Safety and security, they say, are top priorities.

"There's a lot that goes into keeping crowds safe," said Jeff Burbank, athletic director at Colbert County High School in Leighton. "For instance, we've started asking the home crowd to enter on the home side and keep the visitors on the visitors' side. When you're cheering beside people who are cheering for same people you are, it's easier to keep tempers from flaring. We still have people complain about having to walk all the way around the stadium, but it's for their safety and everybody's enjoyment."

Fans can bring cushions and legless stadium chairs to the games, but there's no place to set up lawn chairs, Burbank said.

"We won't let you bring in the same things that everybody else won't let you bring in," he added. "No coolers or bottles. Our booster club does tailgating parties before games and our band boosters sell concessions at the games, so there's no need to bring anything else in. We just ask people to bring their supportive attitudes."

Fans also can bring in team flags and shakers.

"School spirit is great," Burbank said. "But we do have security, so if somebody's bringing in something that's questionable, we'll ask security to step in."

The school doesn't prohibit umbrellas, often banned from stadiums because they can be dangerous and they block the view for those sitting behind.

"Let's face it," Burbank said, "this is high school football. If it's raining, there's not going to be a lot of people out there, so umbrellas aren't that much of a problem."

The University of North Alabama opens its season with a home game Saturday, Sept. 8, at Braly Stadium in Florence.

Fans already have reserved almost every tailgating space for the pre-game festivities on adjacent Spirit Hill, said Carol Lyles, director of UNA alumni

relations.

"This is an important time for people to be involved with UNA, now more than ever," she said. "Our hillside has been staked off and people are claiming almost every location, but that doesn't mean that people can't come anyway and sit and join in. The alumni tent will be there, and if even you're not alumni, on game day we're all UNA friends."

Other campus organizations will have tents at the pre-game gathering and most people will grill or picnic - little, if any, food will be sold through vendors.

Tailgating begins at 3 p.m. and the Lion Walk, with the football team arriving on the hill and walking through the crowd, is at 4 p.m., Lyles said.

In other college play, both Auburn University and the University of Alabama open their seasons at home Saturday.

Top piece of advice for navigating through the overwhelming crowds?

Get there early, said Mike Clardy, a member of the Auburn Game Day committee.

"Arriving early is the key part," he said. "Parking's always a challenge, and we've done a lot to make it easier. This year, we're running 38 shuttle buses, with stops at the mall and other retailers. Those buses run four hours before the game and two hours after. Of course, this is for the people who only come to the game and don't tailgate, but it does help with traffic."

Tailgating is a high point, he added - one the university is proud of.

"We've worked really hard over the past few years to create the preeminent game-day experience for our fans," Clardy said. "We feel good about what we've put in place. We want our fans to see that and our visiting fans to see that, too. People come here to be entertained from the time they roll into town to when they leave town. The game, of course, is a huge part, but it's the whole experience of game day that's important, too."

People attending football games at both Auburn and the University of Alabama, as at most universities, must leave tailgating leftovers in their cars and RVs, since the schools ban such things as coolers, backpacks, food and drinks from the stadiums.

At the University of Alabama, an expanded transit system for transportation to the games and a jumbo-screen TV set up on the Quad are new this year for football fans, said Chris Bryant, assistant director of media relations. Both services are free.

Both schools have Web sites with detailed game day

information. Auburn's is auburn.edu/gameday and Alabama's is http://uagameday.com. UNA's schedule can be found at roarlions.com.

Cathy Wood can be reached at cathy.wood@timesdaily.com or 740-5733.