As someone who believes our football program will never see another major bowl, I'd concentrate on the fan experience, not copying a damn thing from any other school, rather delivering a totally unique experience available only at The Rent, which will earn publicity and not only attract local/regional fans, but also those from opposing schools who will have read/heard about the weird/fun/non-traditional things happening in E. Hartford:
1. We want to be New England's Team, right? So screw a "Coors Light Deck" and sell the idea to New England Brewing (Sam Adams). They have light beers too (heck even. Guinness is a light beer at 4.3 ABV, 120 calories). This would not preclude a beer garden outside that features micros from all 8 CT counties, or a mocktail bar.
2. A pizza (or apizza) truck or stand capable of reasonable facsimiles of a Big 3 pizza. Pre-order via app for your tailgate. During the game, you can have one delivered to your seat.
3. Blue Angel flyovers? Pffft. We'll celebrate Pratt & Whitney's history with flyovers of a custom logo'd Curtiss P-6 Hawk bi-plane, powered by a P&W R-1340 Wasp engine. It'll do barrel rolls over the field.
4. Our marching band will play only songs from the vast catalog of performers from NYC to Boston, or NY/Boston-themed music. It's subtle, but again, we want this to be our territory and ours alone. So look forward to tributes to Lou Reed, David Johansen, The Pixies and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
5. At halftime, a PT Barnum character will host a three ring circus of performers selected from the crowd, each given 30 seconds to do something they claim to be skilled at. The crowd will vote for a winner, who will get something more valuable than tickets to a future game. Like a lobster roll.
6. After scores, our Husky mascot will not do pushups like every other mascot. Instead, Jonathan will get his belly scratched by the appropriate number of Spirit Squad members based on the score. This will be accompanied by the refrain of "The Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and the Machine.
7. "Sweet Caroline" has nothing to do with sports, yet since its origins as a singalong at Fenway, it's become a popular signalong at numerous college stadiums. Being the unique university we are, we don't want to copy that. We want to find our own quirky singalong. And for that we're going outside New England to England itself. So at the start of the third quarter, be ready to join in on the chorus.
The team may continue to suck, but at least going to The Rent can still be fun if all of the above are part of the experience.
