Few faithful fans find room to roam in Atlanta

• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 31, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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ATLANTA — When LSU’s football team played here in the 2005 Peach Bowl, Jay Toncrey, a fan from Slidell, was in a long line of Tiger faithful in recreational vehicles waiting for the parking lot to open.

On Monday morning, when Toncrey arrived at the Georgia World Congress Center parking lot to attend tonight’s Chick-fil-A Bowl, there was no line. There were no RVs, either.

“We were the first ones here,” Toncrey said. “It was about an hour later before the second one showed up, and many hours before the next couple came.”

By midday Tuesday, there were just over a dozen motor homes flying LSU flags in the lot. There were about half that many displaying allegiance to the Tigers’ opponent, Georgia Tech.

Between them was a large gulf of empty asphalt.

“This is naked,” said Jimmie Gaspard, of St. Martinville, describing the scene. “This is not what I expected.”

LSU football fans are famous for faithfully following their team. Gaspard said he’s missed only five games, home or away, in the past 12 years.

But if the RV crowd is an indication, that reputation might take a beating — something that happened to the Tigers themselves five times this season.

It’s the first time LSU has lost that many regular-season games since 1999.

The two situations are clearly related, said Keith Doucet, who drove up from Galliano with his wife, Ann. After winning national championships in 2003 and 2007 and winning at least 11 games the past three seasons, a 7-5 record that included losses in three of the past four games came as a shock.

“I guess we have some fair-weather fans,” Doucet said. “When they lose, people don’t support them like they would if they played for the national championship or something.”

Case in point: Doucet had six extra tickets to sell because friends decided not to make the trip.

“I think our fans gave up too quick on the kids,” Gaspard said.