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From Orlando Sentinel

SENTINEL SPECIAL REPORT

Jumpy fans worry UCF, but officials call stadium safe

Luis Zaragoza | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 30, 2007

Some frenzied football fans at the University of Central Florida are calling their new stadium "The Trampoline" -- and treating it like one.

Fans have discovered they can make the upper deck bounce by jumping up and down at once.

Their cue to go crazy: the techno-pop dance beat of .

"It's fun!" sophomore Michelle Martin says of the bouncing sensation that resulted in the trampoline nickname.

School officials say the stadium is structurally safe and ready for a capacity crowd Saturday when UCF takes on the University of Tulsa for the Conference USA championship.

University officials noticed the movement during the stadium's inaugural game in September against the University of Texas, said William Merck, vice president of administration and finance, who oversees campus construction. He said the motion caught them off guard, but that visual and electronic monitoring since the first game has revealed no damage.

Engineers say there's nothing unusual about stadiums and even skyscrapers having some wiggle room. They're designed for a certain amount of movement.

Still, the motion has unnerved some fans, and it has UCF officials wondering whether all that bouncing will eventually damage the 45,000-seat, $54 million steel structure.

"I've been to a lot of stadiums, and I've never seen one rock back and forth like that," said Tom Di Figlio of Delray Beach, a former UCF employee whose first visit to Bright House Networks Stadium was last week's game against the University of Texas at El Paso. "Maybe it's designed like that, but I think they ought to be careful."

While university officials express full confidence in their stadium, they are concerned about whether the fans' bouncing will shorten its estimated 50-year-plus life span. The university has asked civil engineers to help UCF's building experts analyze the data they're collecting and decide by mid-January whether the stadium needs to be reinforced or left as is.

Officials already have taken one step. They decided midway through the season to limit how often the Zombie Nation tune is played over the public-address system "to address the uneasiness some fans may have," said Joe Hornstein, UCF Athletics Association spokesman. The current limit is four times per game, but Merck said the university will consider banning it outright.

What's happening at UCF is "not an extraordinary condition," said Prasad Samarajiva, a civil and structural engineer with Walter P. Moore. The Houston-based engineering firm was not involved with UCF's stadium but has a large portfolio of stadiums and other buildings.

Nearly two decades ago, students at the University of South Carolina -- revved up by "Louie, Louie" -- found they could get a 15,000-seat deck of Williams-Brice Stadium to sway. The school determined the deck was safe but discussed banning the song to keep the swaying down. Instead, the school spent about $300,000 to install reinforcements to stop the motion, said Russ McKinney, university spokesman.

Students at UCF said they want bouncing to become a tradition.

"Everyone seems more than happy with the stadium with zero concerns of safety," said Adam Papageorgiu, a UCF sophomore whose phone-cam video of the stadium bouncing was posted on YouTube under the title "The Trampoline."

Papageorgiu said fans have been bouncing to the Zombie Nation song since the stadium's debut game against Texas.

"I was immediately concerned about how the stadium almost felt like it was giving out beneath my feet," he wrote in an e-mail. "My friends began to look worried. . . . I got quickly used to it though."

UCF senior Steve Adams, who was buying his game ticket at the stadium this week, said steel structures such as Bright House Networks Stadium are "designed to take lots of stress."

Added the mechanical-engineering student, "If I had no idea about this stuff, I would worry too."

Paul Jehlen, another engineering student, joked that parents are more likely than students to worry.

Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel

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