Half of the pro­ceeds from the “Battle at the Ballpark” game will sup­port the Bulldog Athletic Program

The “Battle at the Ballpark” foot­ball game is going to be a big event, accord­ing to Associate Athletics Director Jon Coles.

The Bulldogs will be fac­ing off against the Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, Mich. Kickoff is set to begin at 7 p.m. on the main home field.

“Normally, we have five home games, this year we have six and we wanted to do some­thing cre­ative,” said Coles. He said the Ferris State and Michigan Tech game will be the sec­ond col­lege foot­ball game to take place at Fifth Third Ball Park. Grand Valley ver­sus Wayne State bat­tled in the inau­gural match in 2007. Proceeds are to be split evenly between the Bulldog Football Program fundraiser and Fifth Third Ballpark. All pro­ceeds will be raised from ticket, con­ces­sion and spon­sor­ship sales. Coles said the money raised for the Bulldog Football Program would cre­ate more oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dent athletes.

“Financially, it’s a great sit­u­a­tion,” said Coles of the deci­sion to split the proceeds.

“If all goes well, the profit to both of us (Bulldog Football Program and Fifth Third Ball Park) will be about any­where from $60,000 to $64, 000,” said Coles. He added, “We’re hop­ing to come home with at least $30,000.”

Coles said the gross total rev­enue would be around $100,000.

Taking out the expenses, every­thing else is strictly profit, accord­ing to Coles.

Pregame activ­i­ties include an an Army Virtual Station, which is a sim­u­la­tor that will let fans expe­ri­ence what it’s like to be an American sol­dier. There will be a bean­bag toss tour­na­ment spon­sored by The Gate, as well as two rock bands, Saraph and Sargent Avenue, who will be play­ing out­side the stadium.

Rocket foot­ball games for youth will take place in the morn­ing before the game. There will also be tail­gat­ing, a rock-climbing wall brought in the by the National Guard. During the half­time show, the Michigan Tech Band will be per­form­ing. But with all these inven­tives, stu­dents are still mixed on whether or not they plan to attend.

“I think it’s extremely com­pli­cated to go watch a foot­ball game,” said Alyssa Anderson, weld­ing and engi­neer­ing tech­nol­ogy student.

Patrick Cavanaugh, biol­ogy stu­dent, said, “My cousin plays for Michigan Tech, so I’m going to watch it.”

While alco­holic bev­er­ages are not nor­mally served at foot­ball games, they will be served at the Battle at the Ballpark game to those 21 and older.

Tickets are cur­rently for sale and can be pur­chased in advance at the FSU Athletics Ticket Office. The cost for stu­dents is $5, $10 for the pub­lic. There will be free shut­tle bus rides to the game, that leave at 3:30 p.m. from Top Taggart field.

For more infor­ma­tion about the event, visit fer​ris​state​bull​dogs​.com.