MACON, Ga. — It's time to play ball!
Mercer University will have their first home game of the season this Saturday, September 9 and Five Star Stadium will soon be filled with the roar of the Bears.
But just how many Mercer Bears are making paw prints on campus?
Jim Cole, Mercer University's athletic director, talked about the foot traffic seen during football season.
"The more people that show up, the better it is and the better it gets," Cole said. "On an average game between the concert series and our home football, we would have between 10,000 to 12,000 people in and out during the day so it's stressful but we've got a lot of great community partners."
So what does this mean for the surrounding businesses?
Max Burke, a Mercer alum and the director of shop operations at Z-Beans talked about how much support he's seen from the Mercer community, especially during football season.
"Excited to see the Bears come back in town and everyone just being around in the community," Burke said. "Walking through Mercer Village, coming into our businesses as well, to be able to serve them with a smiling face, Mercer's given so much to us so to be able to give back to them is extremely rewarding and exciting to see."
The director of operations at Jags Pizzeria, Laurence Dantzler, mentioned how much pride he sees within the students of Mercer.
"Everybody's here for the same thing and it's just a different kind of sense of the day," Dantzler said. "We're here every day 7 days a week, gamedays are just different."
With the stadium almost sold out, Mercer looks forward to growing as a winning team and growing their crowd.
"We want them here," Cole said. "We want them loud, having a good time and students bring so much to the gameday environment and I want them to know how important it is."
The home opener kicks off Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Morehead State. Tickets cost $15 for general admission and $25 for reserved seats. You can find them on Mercer's website.