FSU Football Stadium Updates have fans FRUSTRATED | Doak Renovations

there are a lot of strong opinions on the renovations that are happening at dope Campbell Stadium there's a lot of thoughts on what it's going to do to the game day atmosphere the capacity the crowd the the crowd size just all aspects what will eventually trickle down and due to the athletic program and the product on the field now there's a lot of emotion that goes into this and we talked about it on this week's live show and I'll tell you this we put a disclaimer on the beginning of it to say that if you're in the affected sections if your seats that you've had for 10 15 20 25 or more years are impacted and you're either being priced out or just moved out allog together I understand your complaint and this conversation that Richie and I had was certainly not directed your way it's directed towards the people who this isn't impacting we got some comments after of people saying well my seats are impacted and we tried to preface at the beginning of that conversation that we really weren't weren't talking to those people we understand that gripe at the end of the day and we get it and the inaction of many is now having an impact on a few and and several that are in that situation and so if you fit that category just hear me out we're we're not directing it at you and I don't want you to think that we are that said I'm going to play you our conversation for Sunday in case you missed it and then I want to get your thoughts what are your strong opinions weak whatever on what's happening at dop Campbell Stadium but check out what Richie and I had to say this week uh something that is getting old pretty quick good transition there uh the do Renovations have FSU fans feeling some type of way you wrote here um fans are upset about these Renovations Richie all right and so let me preface this by saying if you are watching this or you listen to it later and your family had seats in the same section for years and years and years and your family's seats got moved during this process or to renew your seats it's it's incredibly more expensive and that's presents a challenge for your family presents like a cost value thing for your family where you don't want to do it in that same section I understand I will say there are other options like you can move elsewhere in the stadium and have an option but if if you're impacted by that because your seats are being moved or more expensive I think you have a gripe the problem is most of these whiny people on the internet are not impacted by it they sit at home they didn't spend their money they weren't going to games in 2018 2019 2020 20121 when we sucked and so Florida State put into motion things to increase Revenue because y'all weren't going to games or we weren't going to games whatever we'll just say the fan base wasn't going to games and so don't complain compl about it now don't complain about them doing things that are going to increase the revenue again if you're impacted that's your one exception you can complain all you want but it's probably not even those folks that are doing the Crux of the complaining on social media if you had if you had tickets in the same section for 40 years you ain't on X complaining about it you know you you know so anyway Richie I'll shut up and let you go for a minute yeah I I think that's the main point right if you're a midlevel you know silver Chief lower end golden Chief booster that you've had seats you know on the Shady Side in the 30s uh in the sections for years and now you're being either pushed out entirely or just priced out yeah you have a legitimate gripe and I will not argue with you at all but the people complaining are probably the ones who are not boosters they go to one game every other year and they just want something to complain about because the high dollar boosters they're not complaining they're probably not happy about the price increase but they're probably happy with what they're going to get in return for it they understand you know that that value right there um but yeah that if you if you don't go to games and you're not a booster you're probably not giving to the battles ends guess what you'll when we host you know North Alabama you'll still be able to get a ticket for less than 50 bucks probably if you want to it's not a big deal that there's no reason to get overly upset about this um and I do think it brings Great Value to the fans uh who are giving the most and listen Florida State's not stupid uh the leadership we have with Michael Alford and president Mccalla and everything that's going on they're not going to make decisions that are going to piss off the key shareholders in Florida State football the high dollar boosters the Legacy golden Chiefs that's who we are trying to appease because they are the ones funding the program they're not only funding football they're funding basketball baseball women's softball women's golf everything the the same few 1% of donors are funding our entire Athletic program so they would not make these changes if they were not on board with this so again like TJ said if you had the same seats for 40 years and you're either getting pushed out or priced out that sucks and I I feel for you because I would be furious as well but guess what those people probably aren't even mad they understand if they've made that kind of investment and they said you know what that's fine I'll still give my booster donation I may not get season tickets but I'll still come up for two or three games a year and gladly pay the school for tickets elsewhere throughout the stadium so yeah I I just don't get the anger about the stadium renovation when it's going to make do one of the best college football experiences in the country come 20125 yeah at the end of the day I get it right like I get all sides of it I I get the you know the argument of oh well it's reducing capacity and this that I get it I get it right I I'm the one that I wish there were 150,000 people that could fit into D like I get it I I would love that the truth of the matter is though that we're just not doing that we're just not filling that Stadium enough and the location doesn't allow that yeah it it just doesn't right you're you're not filling it enough and we've talked about this we've whed and we've complained and we've begged people to become boosters Richie we we have done full-on free advertising for the boosters for two and a half years now and the fact that Florida state has the second largest Alum I'm sorry the largest alumni base in the ACC and I believe they are sixth in donors let me say that again this the Florida state has the second I'm sorry the largest I keep messing it up has the largest alumni base in the ACC and they're sixth right now in active boosters that's unacceptable don't I don't even care if you are a booster and you are you do have seats on the home side just the fact that that is the fact about our fan base is is ridiculous Florida state has and and don't and and then you look outside of alumni go look at how many Twitter followers Facebook followers Instagram followers Florida state has and then compare it to the other teams in the conference NC State Clemson Miami North Carolina Florida State dwarfs all of them it's not even close Florida state has more than Florida if you just look at social media and Florida has a larger alumni base so you look at fans you look at viewership you look at alumni and Florida State's number one number one number one everywhere and we're sixth in booster donations we're sixth in number of paying boosters and so we've begged you for years to go and support the boosters every year I up my booster membership not by much because I don't make a lot of money but I do I up it every single year and we get on here and we beg and we ask people to go sign up boosters fsu.edu go do it after the show but if people refuse to do that the FL Florida State's going to look to make Revenue in other ways they're going to say okay well we've got a smaller booster section we we got a smaller booster base because we need to be sixth I guess in the ACC because people won't get off their wallet and do it for $70 a year we'll make Revenue by in the few that do support the few that do sign up they'll sign up in they'll sign up and pay for more expensive tickets they'll sign up and pay for upgraded seats those seats aren't going to be empty the Champions Club is always sold out guys like it ain't it might look bad you may not like the way it looks on TV but there ain't never extra seed and so and the people complaining are the ones sitting on their couch watching on TV and so listen we you know the school has asked you for years and years and years to sign up and support and people didn't and again I'm not talking to the 223 people watching this live right now I know all of you guys are signed up and support but it's the people that aren't tuned in right now that that we're yelling at so that's my biggest complaint with it is is we you know the the school is going the university the the athletic department they're going to do not only what makes sense financially but they're going to do what makes sense uh long term this is the way that College athletics is going again if we were in Orlando if we were in Miami you know I trust that we would have people come to our games you know we could we could actually sell out of the stadium in Miami um so you know I I think that that's the biggest thing is Richie talked about location you know Florida State and and president or I'm sorry ad Alfred has um talked about the uh distance to for the average fan to have to get to a game it's about 4 hours I mean that's what it is for me that's what it is for Richie if you come from elsewhere I mean it makes it even tougher so I don't know I think you um I think you see that and and you say hey we're going to make changes so that we can make Revenue that we need to to continue to be successful and so yeah I don't have a huge problem with it I don't Richie I don't even know my seats are on the home side but I don't even know if they're affected or not probably is everything on the home side I haven't got miam on my call yet I would think so but into your point you know location so I I have a lot of really good friends that went to UF we go to Florida Florida state every single year when they play in Gainesville cuz we can make a day trip out of it and we're not getting gouged by the hotels you know I I looked up yesterday or the day before hotel prices for the Clemson game something like the country and sweets was like 600 a night two night minimum so you're looking at over 1,400 TH or for not over $1,400 just for hotel stay I'm not guess what I'm not going yeah I'm going to Ireland I'll I'll pay the money for that that's a that's a special one it's a lifetime thing but yeah it's just ridiculous and you know as much as we hate Clemson I got to shout them out they had the best uh booster campaign I can ever recall with iate I pay 10 a year and that was their whole thing they said listen if everyone that comes to this game gives $10 a year to the boosters we're gonna be just fine and they were ahead of us financially for the longest time I think Florida State's F finally caught up or surpassed them but imagine if every FSU fan on Twitter and every single Florida State fan that went into dop on a Saturday gave 10 bucks a year that that's a that'd be huge but people just don't want to give but you're glad they going to pay $22 for Netflix and another 20 bucks for HBO Max and all this nonsense but yeah the boosters and battle Zen if you are watching the show you are a DieHard Florida State fan you would not be watching otherwise give minimum 70 bucks a year to that's $5 a month uh or just under it to the boosters and give a onetime $20 donation battles end or recurring payments if you can that goes a very long way the roster we had last year that should have landed Us in the playoff does not happen without the battle end it just does not and Florida state is likely going to be favored to win the ACC this year that does not happen without the boosters in the battles end so even if it's just a little bit it goes a long way if enough of us do it Richie we had uh which we'll have less on this uh on this video but in January we had 146.640 ,000 people unique viewers that's not total views 146.640 here so 100 just under 150,000 people again we don't have a tenth of that that are boosters I think our numbers are around 13,000 right now so if it was a tenth we'd be at 14,000 so again stop complaining about how the size of the stadium and get off your wallet so that that's again that's not to anybody in here live I know you guys all contribute so that's just for other people that aren't watching all right let's roll before we get on that tangent even longer uh let's give Guardian gold some love gardian gold.com use code no nol aw for 15% off uh I think I you know if you if you pick up in store I think I'm going up there this weekend if you pick up in store you get your order uh you get your shipping no shipping cost right I don't know why I said it backwards but no shipping cost if you pick up in store and then uh if you order $75 or more which is not hard to do with like Nike and Colombia and different stuff I think it's free shipping then anyway so 15% off no slw no o l a w at the end of the day I understand all sides of this I understand if you were impacted I understand if you just want 80 plus thousand people in the stadium because you like that environment unfortunately I understand the school side too and I understand the need to continue to make up a gap of 30 plus million doll with our competition in the SEC in the Big 10 now hopefully we're in one of those conferences soon hopefully we are no longer trying to make that Gap up but I understand the side of Florida State as well and I get all sides and I get that there's no perfect solution here I get that there's no exact perfect way that makes absolutely every seminal fan happy but businesses are not run to make every single person who supports them happy and as much of a tough reality as that might be to hear the seminal boosters and the Florida State athletic department are a business that need to make money and need to make money to continue to compete for championships and if that means that we have to sacrifice a little bit of our home attendance if that means that they have to sacrifice a little bit of the number of people coming in then I understand it they have to make the moves the business moves that make the most sense for them and does that frustrate some fans does that frustrate some longtime boosters absolutely I understand that but is it what's ultimately best for the University well time's going to tell on that it's tough to know here in early 2024 what the long-term ramifications of these decisions are I do know that Michael Alfred and Florida State's athletics department right now are being run incredibly well they've cleaned up a ton of mess that was left over for them from past regimes and I do trust that they have the best intentions for Florida State athletics in the Forefront of their mind when they're making these decisions we'll see how it all pans out I think this is the way that most college Athletics are going at this point you can look up what other programs have done and you'll see that this is the path they're taking but at the end of the day the proof will be in the pudding on this we will see if this was the right decision if we fall behind if we lag behind due to certain decisions that are made and then we can have that conversation I suspect though that Michael Alfred does have us pointing the right direction and as uncomfortable as it may be for some of us this is probably what's best for Florida State athletics this is probably what's best for Florida State football and dope Campbell going forward now I know that's not a comfortable thing to hear if you are one of the ones that's impacted but if you're one of the ones that aren't supporting if you're one of the ones that we were talking to when we were begging you to sign up to be boosters maybe change that so that things aren't impacted in the future I appreciate you guys tuning in I appreciate you guys for watching today we'll talk to you guys soon go NOS