The old adage “when one window closes, another one opens” could apply to a change at the beginning of the University of West Florida’s 2020 football campaign.
The Argonauts — rated No.1 in both Street and Smith’s and Lindy’s preseason Division-2 polls — were originally set to kick off defense of their national championship against West Virginia Wesleyan. But the Bobcats’ conference, the Mountain East, had other plans.
“Their conference had a meeting last week and came out and said they were only going to play conference games,” said UWF Athletics Director Dave Scott. “And Wesleyan unfortunately — no fault of their own — had to drop us due to league requirements.”
To get the Argos and Commerce on opposite sidelines for Week-1, there were some dominoes that had to fall.
“Texas A&M Commerce had a home opener with Simon Fraser, who is actually in Canada – and the Canadian border is not expected to open for a while, maybe to mid-August,” Scott said. “That game was not going to happen, and it opened it up for them.”
The teams meet on Thursday, September 3, at Bayfront Stadium. Commerce is ranked No. 3 in the nation by Street and Smith’s, and beat the Argos 37-27 for the D-2 national championship in December, 2017.
“The home schedule is starting to be a ‘Murderers’ Row,’ but a great one for the fans,” said Scott. “You have the 2017 national champs in Commerce; you have the 2018 national champs in Valdosta State, and us being the 2019 national champs. You get a couple of national champ rematches at home here in Pensacola.”
Formerly known as the Mountain Lions, Commerce is now called the “Bois d'Arc” (bow-dark), defined by Miriam-Webster as a form of wood. The teams will play a home-and-home series – Bayfront Stadium this year and in Commerce, Texas in 2021. Scott adds that there’s still time to book a 10th game for the upcoming season, which could be in week eleven.
“We do have the eighth weekend too; we will keep our ears open, but most people are in conference play and it’s a tough time to find a game,” said Scott., “So we don’t expect at this time to pick up a tenth game, but I’d never rule anything out.”
Only four home games are scheduled, compared to the usual five or six. Fewer home games mean less revenue for downtown Pensacola. A study by the Haas Business Center of the 2018 season — the latest available — shows UWF football generated a total of $9.7 million in sales throughout Escambia County. Amy Newburn at Haas says the report uses multiple inputs.
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“The spending by both the football program and the share of athletics that would be attributed to that,” said Newburn. “Ticket and merchandise sales, concessions, and visitor spending from attendees; day campus and recruitment days as well as the visiting teams that come to the region.”
UWF football’s economic impact was placed at just over $6 million in value added to the economy, generating about $4.6 million in personal income. About 40% of revenues created by the program is associated with visitor spending.
“They’re spending new money in the region; some of them are staying overnight, but they’re typically making a day of it,” Newburn said. “They’re going to bars and restaurants, they’re going shopping before and after [the games], and so they’re bringing net new money into our region.”
And, while that $9.7 million figure counts all of Escambia County, Newburn says the chief beneficiary was downtown Pensacola.
“We do try to understand how much of this spending was happening downtown; and so we asked individuals to estimate how much of their spending in that region,” said Newburn. “We know about $1.2 million in sales is happening in downtown, and then around the football program.”
“Its been just an unusual, unprecedented time; you hear those words all the time,” said UWF Athletics Director Dave Scott.
“We’re excited to be able to get back into it; we’re hoping that the fall is more normal,” Scott said. “It will be different — we know that — but gets back to some normalcy with students back on campus and getting back to the mission of educating and building champions for life for our student-athletes.”
UWF’s 2020 home schedule includes three Gulf South Conference games – Shorter on Sept. 26, Valdosta State — ranked third by Lindy’s and 5th by Street and Smith’s — on Oct. 10, and West Georgia on Halloween.