Bevo Boulevard upgraded for football season
AUSTIN, Texas - The Longhorns officially kick off their football season this Saturday against Louisiana Tech.
Not only is it a home game, but the infamous Bevo Boulevard has been upgraded from last year to give fans the ultimate game day experience.
“They have a direct impact on winning and losing," Longhorns head football coach Tom Herman said. "Really really loud packed and intimidating crowds that has an effect on a visiting opponent hopefully we can be as loud and as packed as anybody in the country this year."
Fans really do create the full college game day experience. Last year the UT athletics department premiered Bevo Boulevard a tailgating experience for the masses.
Streets on campus are shut down, tents are set up and thousands of fans sporting their burnt orange join in for food, fun and Longhorn football.
“The fans absolutely have reacted in a huge positive way so we want to give them more this year we want to go bigger and better,” UT executive senior associate athletic director Drew Martin said.
Martin says they started planning for this year a game and a half in last year. They've doubled in the amount of space they had last year expanded north about 50 yards and south 50 yards too.
Instead of six food trucks there will be 14 that rotate, boasting Austin fan favorites like Torchy's Tacos, Garbo's lobster rolls, Amy's Ice Cream and Rollin Rita's Margarita van. There will even be a Deep Eddy Vodka Lounge.
“We set the attendance record, the USC game last year had 103 thousand plus fans in the stadium. We can't do that this year because of construction we lost about 4 thousand seats in the South end zone as we build a South end zone structure down there but season tickets have gone extremely well," Martin said. "We are on the verge of setting an all-time season ticket record of 63 thousand tickets, so we are very excited about the way fans are responding.”
Martin says Texas game day is also a switch up.
“We're going to have Texas Gameday live on the outside of the stadium instead of the inside, and they're going to set up right behind me and shoot all the way down Bevo Blvd," Martin said.
Bevo Boulevard is free to the public. If you don't have a parking pass, UT athletics says Uber will drop you off right in front of LBJ.