php if statements in field.tpl.php

Normally, my situation is easily solved using views rewrite feature.

However, in this case I am unable to use views rewrite because I have data attribute tags in the field wrappers that are stripped out by views. So I need to handle this at the template level. I have no problem getting the field data itself, but my issue is with the field wrappers. I need to use php if statements in either views-view-field.tpl.php or views-view-field.tpl.php to enclose the wrapper html too along with the field so it is not displayed for empty fields. But i can't figure out the php syntax to use to accomplish this. I need to be able to show the field data plus wrappers if the field has content, but show nothing (wrappers html included) if there is no data.

so far i have tried various approaches in views-view-field.tpl.php e.g,

<?php if (!empty($output)) : ?>
    <p class="tms-caption font-alt-1 text-medium weight-light color-white hide-on-mobile mb-30" data-animate-in="preset:slideInDownShort;duration:900ms;delay:500ms;" data-no-scale><?php print $output; ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

unfortunately, i am not having any luck. any advice would be greatly appreciated. many thanks!