Five Promotions I’d Like To See At FSU Football Games
Posted by NoleCC
In lieu of blackouts and whiteouts (which I don’t love, but I always support as a fan) I thought I’d toss out the 5 promotions I’d like to see at FSU Football Games in the future:
- Free garnet shirts for the student section. I understand that the economy is brutal and that finances are tight, but it’s that way for everyone. There isn’t a sponsor out there that could put together some garnet shirts for the student section for free? Discounts for the students are great, but free is better.
- A segment on the video board during the game regarding Seminole Tribe history. Would it hurt so bad to eliminate one round of advertisements in favor of this segment?
A throwback jersey / helmet combo. I would LOVE to see the old “STATE” printed on an outline of Florida for 1 game.- A different discounted food item each week. It wouldn’t have to be anything drastic, but knock $.50 off of the hot dogs for the day, or $.75 off of something else and run with it. The fans would appreciate the gesture, and likely would buy more items, which would either make up for lost revenue or increase revenue.
- Foam Tomahawk Giveaway night. Just because. :)
What are your suggestions? Leave them in a comment!
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The Fredster on 
tye on 
A fan for the fans day especially in August and September when the games can be scorchers!
Excellent point Luv… preferably with the spray bottle.
Just a generational thing: Fans are also made of paper/poster-board etc. and one manually waves the fan in the air to produce wind movement. I mention this because it may be more cost effective for the promoter. Helps burn calories too! hehe
hahaha… yeah I didn’t think about that. That would be a good idea and a bit cheaper than what I suggested.
How about these ideas…
- If you are a first time season ticket holder you get sent the True Seminole t-shirt or the white-out/black-out/garnet-out t-shirt for that season. That way you are already prepared for the theme.
- If you move up your booster level, you get something like 3 bonus priority points for that year.
- Actually being able to select available seats (single or season tickets) on Seminoles.com.
- A video or a countdown clock for the Marching Chiefs before they do their pregame show. Just something to get the fans to make more noise in anticipation of the game. Fans should be yelling N-O-L-E-S when the band spells it out…the loudest person shouldn’t be the PA guy during the pregame – ever.
Parker I like how you’re thinking!
- If you are a first time season ticket holder you get sent the True Seminole t-shirt or the white-out/black-out/garnet-out t-shirt for that season. That way you are already prepared for the theme.
I love that idea. I doubt we’ll ever see it, but it’s a great idea.
As for the selecting seats, fans can request where they’d like to sit based on Priority points, but the Ticket Office makes the final determination. I doubt that will change, because I think it would be tough to have a system in place like that for season ticket holders. I like the idea for individual games though, that seems reasonable if it’s a game-by-game basis.
- Another crazy idea would be to partner up with an oil company and randonly give out a gasoline gift certificate ($25-50) to a fan who drove more than 200 miles to the game. Show the gift card being presented on the large screen and display the mileage.
- Or select a fan at random and their next game they attend in the next year they get a free night in a partner hotel. The hotels could use some goodwill.
Nice promotion ideas. Someone ought to take a trip to Gvl to see some of those ideas at work. The fans for fans have been a regular for 30 years. For a while, they were printed in team colors on opposing sides of the fans, and as fans yelled the colors back and forth, they’d hold up the appropriate color. Slightly dumb, but it worked.
The student shirts idea works, too. Every year, every student season ticket holder gets a matching shirt. After a few years, the east stands stay all blue. Of course putting students in the endzone stinks. They belong behind the visitors’ bench. Students are much more intimidating than old folks. Of course, adults should buy their own shirts. Let’s not be TOO cheap.
Discounted food would be a good idea, but at least they have free water and ice at super hot games. Taking care of the fans isn’t cheap, but the cost is moderate and it keeps them coming back. The place was sold out in the Zook era and few things could be more painful.
I guess the Gators have that luxury because of their revenue base. All 76,500 season tickets sold by March and a much, much higher Booster requirement to even get the tickets can afford it easier.
I think that season ticket number by the Gators includes the student section.
That might be the case Parker… the number impresses, but what I’m more impressed by with them was how quickly they sold out tickets in a crappy economy.
I agree that what UF is doing is impressive, even if they are counting in the student section. My guess is that FSU would be 53,000 +/- if they included their student section along with season ticket sales.
The more important issue here is revenue generation. UF has somewhere around 800-1,000 boosters that give $14,000+ in football donations annually. Then there is the new SEC television contract kicking in.
Last year, FSU had about 1,200 people (by my count from the annual donors posted on the booster website last year) give at the Silver Chief level ($3,000) or higher. This is one reason why the new ACC television contract is so important. And the ACC needs to stick a 2nd team in the BCS regularly (I would have selected West Virginia over BC, but I digress) to get some of that money.
I think that it is critical that FSU find some ways to get some revenue generated to compete in the modern financial arms race of the elite BCS programs.
Some ideas are seeing chairbacks with some club access somewhere go in part of Priority 1 seating, selling the naming rights to the stadium to a corporation, or having a personal seat license for your season tickets in Priority 1. In fact, a PSL or stadium naming rights might generate some cash to build the indoor practice facility or lower the naming rights requirement for the practice facility to get the thing going.
I think that it is great that there is a grassroots effot going on right now to fill the stadium and sign up new boosters. I want to see the stadium full for every game. Filling up the stadium is a start. We need to strengthen the upper end of the booster program as well for the long term. Signing up one new Golden Chief ($6,000) is like signing up 100 Iron Arrows ($60) not including season tickets. In my opinion, FSU needs to make some strategic choices to get the revenue up from football.
So while I agree that the promotions are good to get people in the stands, I think that there is something more important to look at.
Parker, the PSL is already implemented… as a Booster Donation. In my view, colleges pioneered that idea long before the pro sports came around to it, don’t you think?
The booster fee is an annual contribution. The PSL is an upfront contribution with future rights.
The Dallas Cowboys had something where you paid a PSL of $50,000 per seat and that gave you the right to renew your tickets for 25 years or something like that. The PSL generates cash in hand to pay off stadium financing immediately or to reduce the debt down to a manageable level to where the interest payments aren’t killer.
So, lets suppose that FSU implements a PSL/booster hybrid system. There are about 12,000 to 15,000 Priority 1 seats. So, charge a PSL fee for the right to renew the Priority 1 seats for the next 5-10-15-20 years and adjust the PSL fee accordingly to the timeperiod. If you don’t want to pay the PSL fee, then have the existing minimum annual requirement or priority points to renew your seats each year.
Now some people will pay upfront to lock in their seats. This cash can then be used for the indoor practice facility. Lets assume that 10% of Priority 1 (12,000 seats) pays an average of $10,000 per seat for a PSL…there is $12 million that is sitting in the bank today that wasn’t there before. Now, go build that practice facility.
Parker I’m going to incorporate that into a post on this topic… you’re raising excellent points!
Parker has some great ideas. Perhaps some of the fans should be hired by the FSU marketing department.