Along with the newly enhanced student tailgate section, the Athletic Marketing and Promotions department will release the Panther Nation Fan application this week. The fan app will provide Panther fans with up-to-date information regarding teams, a live stream to listen to games, scores from around the Ohio Valley Conference and statistics throughout college football.

“We are going to have a smart phone app that will be available this week in the Apple and Android market,” Director of Athletic Marketing and Promotions Anthony Orlando said. “All you have to do is go to the market and search Panther Nation to download the app.”

The Panther Nation Fan app also has a GPS feature that will award students with prizes for attending games. The app has a check-in feature that will allow students to use the tracking devices in their phone to check-in at the stadium and earn points throughout the season.

“The cool thing about the app is that it has a check-in feature,” Orlando said. “Using the GPS technology on each smart phone, students can check in to the event while they are at O’Brien Field. All they have to do is check-in to the event and they will get assigned points.”

The point system will vary from game-to-game and sport-to-sport, and will also have a leader board that will rank the top 10 students from that school year.

“The more you check-in to games, the more points you will get,” Orlando said. “Each different event will have an assigned number of points. If it’s football, maybe it’s worth five points, but if it’s a rugby game – which is less attended by our students – maybe that is worth 20 points.”

Students who attend Panther games will be rewarded with a number of prizes throughout the school year. The lower ranked prizes could vary from Eastern apparel to meet-the-team type of activities, while the higher-ranked prizes could be an iPad or other electronic devices.

“The more points you get the more prizes you will get along the way,” Orlando said. “Maybe it’s a T-shirt, maybe it’s a meet-the-team type of thing. For the grand prize it could be a cruise or an iPad or something like that.”

The fan app is not to discourage from the already established Panther Nation Student Fan Club, but it is a more technological advanced system to enhance the game day experience and the coverage on Eastern athletics.

“In the past we have had the Panther Nation Student Fan Club, it’s still Panther Nation, but it’s just a streamline system where we can track what students are going to what games. It’s just encouraging fan attendance and gives us the opportunity to interact with our fan base.”

The Panther Nation Fan app will be available for download in the Android market Monday Aug. 20, while the Apple version can be downloaded later this week.

Jordan Pottorff can be reached at 581-2812 or jbpottorff@eiu.edu.