Mississippi State’s punt coverage wasn’t the only thing that failed Saturday.
Due to gloomy weather, the MSU Foundation’s vaunted “fanimation” card stunt that would have transformed the fan sections at Davis-Wade Stadium into a sea of maroon and white for the “State of the Future” fund raising campaign was a flop, too.
“The weather caused two things to happen,” said Dennis Prescott, vice president for external affairs. “The cards were set the evening before the game, so the next day they were wet and some were ruined. The other problem the weather presented was that it caused a lot of people not to come, so we decided not to do it.”
“The rain dampened all of our activities for the day,” said Amy Cagle, director of communications for the Foundation. “We had a plan to replace the ruined cards, but we decided prior to the game that we weren’t going to be able to do the presentation.”
Prescott would not disclose the amount of money the fanimation presentation cost. He did say that Mississippi State didn’t lose money, because all of the money for the card how was given by private donors.
Mississippi State was going to be the first SEC team to have fanimation in their stadium, Cagle said.
“It was very unfortunate that we weren’t able to do it, but if there was going to be a lesser effect, we didn’t want to do it that day,” she said.
There is still some discussion within the Foundation of a rescheduled fanimation, either for another football game or possibly a basketball game.
“A rescheduling is being discussed,” she said. “A lot of people were really excited about the fanimation. We are going to try to do it again sometime when conditions are favorable.”
“We were disappointed not to do it, but it achieved its initial purpose. We hope to do it sometime in the future, either at another football game or a basketball game,” Prescott said.