Booster update from Jerry Kutz

Booster update from Jerry Kutz

7/08/2014

"We will set a record for annual fund contributions and our memberships at all levels ($60 and up) will be higher year over year again. I think a lot of the growth of Seminole Boosters is because there is hope in the program again; fans are willing to invest when they have confidence in the direction of the football team.

The last few years remind me of the early Dynasty Era (1986-1990) when our program was financially strapped and Bobby Bowden was in high demand by LSU, Auburn and Alabama. FSU leaders had to pony up to pay Bobby who was making far less than $500k at the time. He went to $1 million, then to $2 million and finally to $3 million annually. The Boosters also had to raise a lot more money in order to fund the big commitment we needed to make to compete in the arms race and to build facilities and our fans responded with a $70 million capital campaign. By the late 1990s our membership had grown to about 19,000 people and about $10 million in annual donations. Season tickets sold out too inspite of FSU's choice to join the ACC rather than the SEC, which was a very unpopular decision among our fans, and dissappointing losses that cost us national championships.

So there was PLENTY of controversy back then too don't kid yourself.

The Boosters and ticket sales grew during that era because our fans were filled with hope even though we hadn't won a National Championship yet and many of our fans didn't think Bobby had one in him. I can remember getting absolutely assailed by fans at a bunch of Seminole Clubs around the country -- nearly coming to blows with some -- who thought Bobby had accomplished all he could. I was a reporter on the practice fields and in the film room with access and firmly believed, objectively, that Bobby could and would. I go called a homer back then and told that I was only parroting the company line which was pretty insulting and prepared me for this job.

But the majority liked Bobby and had hope and became Boosters and bought season tickets and thankfully, hope prevailed over darkness and the stars eventually lined up for Bobby.

To put our current good fortune and emotions into perspective, I have to remind you that our season tickets fell from almost 50,000 to less than 34,000 toward the end of the Bowden era and the Booster membership numbers dropped from 19,000 to 12,000 even though contributions continued to go up.

People simply lost hope and stopped coming to Doak, stopped investing in the program, and it wasn't just the "Johnny Come Latelys" who abandoned FSU. Sixty six percent of the people who stopped buying tickets had been long time season ticket holders (10 years or more) and were Boosters of all giving levels.

And those of us who have been around it, and seen it happen at Bama and Tennessee and Florida, know it can happen again when hope bleeds out.

When Jimbo took over, ticket sales and memberships began to rise, slowly at first but at least tickets and memberships didn't fall further. While strapped for money, FSU's leadership and the Boosters invested in Jimbo's ideas, hiring more staff and paying his coaches far more than the Bowden assistants had been paid. FSU leaders also invested in sales infrastructure to pound the pavement for new Boosters and new ticket sales in order to fund that rising budget.

The sales didn't come easy but one by one they were coming.

Jimbo won early and people could see what was on the way with top ranked recruiting classes... just like they saw in 1985 when UF was on probation and  Bobby broke tradition and invested in a recruiting coordinator who brought in a rare No. 1 ranked class with Sammie Smith, Deion, Odell, etc....

I give FSU's administration -- from the President to the AthleticDirector to the Boosters to the Board of Trustees -- credit for adapting to Jimbo's process, which was far more elaborate and expensive that the Bowden era. FSU is enjoying this success in some part because the admin was willing to invest in order to keep  Jimbo, pay his coaches market rate, invest in fundraising in a bad economy and provide the first-time-ever head coach with the resources he asked for.

It was a leap of faith.

At some schools the administrations and donors might not have invested that much in a rookie coach, particularly in a down economy. The leaders and donors might have suffered the huberis to think FSU could win another NC the old school way, like had been done twice before.

Fortunately, our leaders had the faith and our donors had the hope to invest and we were able to raise enough in Seminole Booster memberships to fund the operating budget while conducting a $15 million capital campaign to build the IPF and the money to open the football dormitory/apartment complex that will set us further apart from our recruiting competitiors.

Now, four winning seasons later, with ACC and national championships under his belt, Jimbo is a proven head coach and the Seminoles are relevant again which makes it easier to have hope and to invest to provide the money to keep him and to continue the next Dynasty run at FSU.

We topped 23,000 Seminole Booster members last year counting our Student Boosters and raised more than $15 million in our annual fund, which was a record. We will likely go over 25,000 members this year counting Student Boosters and top $16 million.

And we'll launch another capital campaign in order to improve football facilities, endow scholarships and provide our coaches with the operating budgets needed to compete in collegiate athletics' unforgivingly competitive world.

Its an exciting time as always in athletics. "


"To answer your question, we had about 15,500 last year with about 8,000 Student Boosters typically. That puts us in the top  10 of collegiate fundraising orgs depending on how they count their numbers. Most are 16,000 or less so we are among the big boys in membership. Typically, the SEC and ACC schools ticket requirements are much higher than ours so we are in the top 25 in terms of dollars generated by members. You may find it hard to imagine but our average contribution per member is about $1000 while most of the SEC and ACC schools average donation required is closer to $2000 per member ($100 difference between ACC and SEC last year).

As for our sales/marketing efforts, we do far more than you probably realize.
1. Yes, referral selling is our best and most effective method because "People give to People for Causes they believe in."
2. We don't wait on 15-0 seasons. After years of using volunteer callers and outsourced telemarketing, we chose to go inhouse in 2009 based on a pro model and have developed what most other colleges would say is the best in collegiate athletics. Our outbound callers have generated $2 million the firstyear  on a budget of $300k, $2.5 million the next year (same budget), $3 mill the third year and are already over $3.5 million.  We believe the organization we developed in the tough times is now poised to take advantage of the 14-0 season. And while our sales are terrific, we are also enjoying a high renewal rate from personal relationship selling. Their lead lists come from:
    a. lists like you mention of past graduates, single game ticket buyers, former season ticket holders, former boosters, merchadise buyers;
    b. Booster Life event attendees. We host more than 250 Booster Life events a year, hosting more than 100,000 people that range from the Jimbo Fisher Tour to the Pasadena Tailgate party that attracted 10,000, to Booster tours, Seminole Club events, football tailgate parties all the way to a Booster hosting 10 friends at his home. All those leads go to our outbound sales who call them, thank them, develop rapport when possible, qualify interest and find a fit and a close.
    c. We have 9 employees living in towns like Atlanta, Jacksonville, Panama City, Tampa (2), Orlando, West Palm, Miami (2). They are there to bring FSU to our alumni and Boosters with lots of Booster Life events, interaction with Seminole Clubs and a couple dozen personal sales calls each every week. They feed leads to the sales team and sign up lots of Tomahawk and above members themselves every day while working on major gift leads.
3. We started a service and retention staff like professional sports this year to complement our outbound sales and fundraisers. This seven man staff works to help our ticket holders have a better experience and hope to raise our renewal rate. Even a 1 percent increase can provide a positive ROI. If we have the positive result we expect, in terms or renewals and upgrades, we'll go back to management to increase the size of this effort.
4. Outside of personal sales, and referral selling, our two best ROIs still comes from direct mail and email. We tend to send direct mail or email and follow it up with personal sales so its integrated and one boosts the other.
5. I really like social media and invested a lot of time and money in it last year. It was great for single game ticket sales, which creates leads for outbound sales, and it was really good for even registration, which also pays off in sales leads and event attendance where we have a shot at friend-raising and delivering our message. We like social media for lead generation as well but haven't found the ROI as good as more-traditional methods on a straight up membership ask.
6. We use some print, radio and television but again those mediums haven't been as successful as the first five mentioned.
7. We do work with the Seminole Clubs who can be a great source of communication for us and leads. Some clubs are really great about helping spread the word.

While we do a lot with the fans we can identify, there are some 400,000 alumni out there that the Boosters or the University haven't been able to reach... yet. Seminole Boosters is a big part of the University's upcoming Capital Campaign so I am in a lot of meeting with the fundraising teams from the Foundation and the Alumni Association. One of our university's largest challenges is finding good addresses for the majority of those graduates who leave and don't keep in touch with a good address. We scrub lists, append lists, create events to gather names and tie back to our graduate data but its not near as many as it should be. Many of the addresses are the permanent address you used -- your parents address -- when you attended FSU is all the school has for you.

I think most of the posters on this board, and most of us who attended FSU, know who Florida State University is and how to get in touch with the university to share contact info. If you haven't had a solicitation or correspondence from the Boosters or from the University its probably because we don't have good contact information from you. And maybe that's by design if you don't want to be asked to help fund the academic or athletic mission of the team you cheer for.

If you want to check to see if we have good contact information for you, send me an email at jkutz@fsu.edu and we'll look.

Hope this helps you understand how we solicit new members to grow our organization. If you are interested in volunteering either to help us find members or advise us on how we can be more efficient, give me a call."


Re: Club seat project moving forward

"Let me address a couple of points you asked about:
1. "supposed premium view from the endzone?"
We will not market it as a premium view. Instead we will market it as a premium experience for those looking for access to air conditioning, elevators, premium food, beverage and restrooms, wifi, television broadcasts of games from around the nation, Friday - Sunday experiences, as well as the opportunity to move about and see friends rather than sit in the same seat all game. If you, or your wife, don't care about any of those things then you will decide its not a premium experience for you.

2. "that is the last thing our stadium needs"
Best practices in stadium design would argue that point with you. Pro and college stadiums across the nation are building more premium seats, with higher yields, because there is demand for those experiences. I survey all college club seat sections, endzone or upperdeck included, and the vast majority were running 95 percent occupancy or better.

3. "Another 6,000 butts not in seats but hanging out inside"
We worried about this too but then we looked at our sales figures and guess what? Other than the really mega games, we've had 9,000 empty seats in the south endzone for most games. The ones we've filled have been very cheap group ticket sales, band day, etc. which we will still have some room for. We think if we can at least get people to the park, most will sit in the seats for the big games and venture inside only when they get bored and want to see another game in action.

4. Endzone view is not a good view.
I think the majority of people would agree with you who haven't acquired a taste for the nuances of that perspective. I watched a lot of film with coaches when I was a reporter and its all shot from that perspective. Once you get used to it, you see things that a person on the 50 won't ever see. I choose to sit in the endzone for this reason and can sit anywhere I want at home games. I am thinking about Kermits kickoff return for a touchdown. I was in the endzone like you and saw that whole open and thought touchdown before he ever got to the 20 yard line. I think of Karlos Williams first touch, when he went right on the sweep. I saw the whole open before he did, I think. You see the passing lanes even before the quarterback does. You see the pass rusher beating the tackle, the linebacker reading a guard, a trap block that you'll never even know happened from the sideline, the safety reading the quarterback's eyes and jumping a slant.
And then there's Osceola and Renegade running right at you with the team trailing them. A flyover coming at you, the fireworks. The players rushing to the endzone to high five fans, the big scoreboard right above the field of play to where all you have to do to see the replay is lift your eyeballs.
I agree its not a "premium" view except to those of us who like it and there are some of us who actually do prefer it.

5. Understand the cost of club seats on sideline
You'll be happy to know that we exhausted that thought process but have incorporated it into our planning process so that we can still do it in the future. The Champions Club design requirement is that it will be built in such a manner that it can be mimicked on the East and West sideline. At some point we could choose to extend this project all the way down both sidelines and the structures would match up."