With the Jones High football team unbeaten through six games and on the verge of being ranked among the top five teams in Class 4A by Florida sports writers, enough fans of the team made the trip from Orlando to fill every available seat on the visitors side of Cocoa Stadium on Friday.
Likewise, the home stands were packed. The only time an open seat could be spotted was when the band left the bleachers for its halftime performance.
Cocoa athletic director and coach John Wilkinson would have loved to have seen a similar sight the previous two Friday nights, but the team lost back-to-back home games, one to a cancellation and the second, on Oct. 7, to Hurricane Matthew.
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Cocoa, Astronaut, Palm Bay, Eau Gallie, Melbourne and Merritt Island Christian all had home games postponed or cancelled because of Hurricane Matthew. District games must be rescheduled, but each of those were non-district games, and rescheduling can be impossible due to factors ranging from travel to a lack of open dates to the low numbers of available referees to cover games.
Cocoa’s Zach Christian harasses Jones QB Quadry Jones (4) during Friday’s game.
In Cocoa’s case, the Oct. 7 loss was particularly damaging. It would have matched the No. 1 team in 4A, which is Cocoa, against the No. 1 team in 6A, Daytona Beach Mainland. Such matchups are rare in the state and even more so in Brevard County.
And it was a costly loss of revenue. Even a typical game impacts the bottom line significantly.
“I would say anywhere, depending on how the other team travels, from $8,000 to $12,000,” Wilkinson said, “maybe $15,000.”
It’s anyone’s guess whether Cocoa would have beaten either Kansas City Rockhurst, a Sept. 30 game that was also cancelled, or Mainland. The loss of the two games in off-the-field terms is more certain: “thousands of dollars.”
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Football revenue pays for a high percentage of athletic expenses at the school, as it does across the county.
“Football really does cover all other sports that aren’t self-sufficient,” according to Astronaut athletic director Cheryl Shivel, whose hurricane-week game would have been played in its own Storey-Taylor Stadium on campus. She also estimated a loss of thousands of dollars. “We’re not making that up, not to mention the band and their concessions sales. That’s huge.”
School organizations rotate the responsibility of directing cars in the parking lot each game. The donations they receive, typically $300 to $400, were also lost.
Fans cheer for the Cocoa Tigers during a game this season.
Despite a season with just one win so far, crowds at Melbourne High have remained strong. But when games aren’t played, the stands are empty, as are the athletic department’s cash boxes.
“Friday night can generate, with concessions and everything, $10,000 to $12,000, gross,” Bulldogs athletic director Fred Keeney said. “We’re lucky, in that, our fans support us, no matter what.”
That’s when the game is on its traditional night, Friday. Melbourne’s Oct. 7 home game against Heritage will be made up on Tuesday at 6 p.m., leaving little time for parents and other fans to make the transition from work to eating to attending the game.
“I’m sure we’re going to lose probably half the normal gate,” Keeney said. “We’re just lucky we’ll be able to make up the game.”
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Cocoa and Astronaut weren’t able to arrange any makeups. For Shivel and Astronaut, it wasn’t just a loss of revenue but the postponement of homecoming, which will now be Nov. 4.
“I’ve never had that happen before,” Shivel said. “We’ve had the game cancelled, but the next night was always the dance. It hasn’t happened in my 15 years teaching at Astronaut.”
Contact McCallum at 321-242-3698 or bmccallum@floridatoday.com. Follow facebook.com/FLtoday.brianmccallum and @Brian_McCallum on Twitter.
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Friday’s games
Cocoa at Astronaut, 7 p.m.
Merritt Island at Palm Bay, 7
Bayside at Melbourne, 7
Eau Gallie at Okeechobee, 7
Jensen Beach at Heritage, 7
Rockledge at Titusville, 7
Satellite at Space Coast, 7
Ocala Trinity Catholic at Melbourne CC, 7
Father Lopez at Cocoa Beach, 7
Jupiter Christian at Merritt Island Christian, 7
Saturday’s game
Holy Trinity at Savannah, Ga., Memorial Day, 2
High school sports | floridatoday.com/sports/high-school-sports/