FSU pushes forward with improvements at Doak, elsewhere
"The Doak renovations, which actually began last year with a massive overhaul of the Seminoles' locker rooms and coaches' offices, are far from the only facilities upgrades on the drawing board for FSU's athletics department.
As he approaches the 18-month mark of his term as athletics director, Wilcox and his staff met recently with new FSU President John Thrasher, Seminole Boosters executives and other top university leaders to prioritize a long list of objectives that include renovating locker rooms and other facilities for several of the Seminoles' sports programs. Wilcox declined to discuss specifics of those projects until they are further along in the process, but continued improvements to the Civic Center - including renovated locker rooms and a new player lounge - are expected to be high on the list. A document on the university's facilities website shows those upgrades as well as plans for a new façade for the exterior.Wilcox said some of the facilities projects are necessary for general upkeep, while others are geared toward keeping FSU competitive in recruiting as college athletics departments strive to outdo each other in a facilities arms race."
FSU pushes ahead with Doak renovation
Jerry Kutz
2/25/2015
That's great! We need you and 80,000 more in those stands having fun.
Originally posted by 10thSFGNole:
Good to see we are making strides to keep up in the arms race.
Club seats are never something I'm going to be interested in for the simple fact that I prefer sitting on the sidelines. The closer to the 50 the better. Instead of getting shady side tickets on the 20, I choose to sit in section 9 at the 42 yard line…and I love those seats!
And don't even talk to me about suites or boxes…I don't have that kind of $$.
At some point in your life you may find that it isn't as much fun as it used to be. It may be that you can't climb stairs. Or that your wife refuses to come sit in the heat. Or you find yourself in a job where your customers want to spend time with you on game day. Any number of things can happen in your life that alter your perspective. Or not. At the end of the day we have to provide something for everyone. We have 100 skyboxes that are maxed out with 2400 people. We have the Varsity Club Box on the SouthWest corner that maxes out at several hundred. The Booster Box on the East that maxes out at several hundred. That is only 3,000 seats out of an 82,300 seat stadium, which is less that four percent. Modern stadiums today like about 15 percent to be in premium seating and the trend is growing towards 20 percnet.
The Club seat section will handle up to 6000 people when full so together with 3000 in our skyboxes, that will bring us up to 9,000 of about 80,000 or about 11 percent which is much closer to the right number.
So we still need 89 percent of our attendees right where you like to be!
PS as for the cost of club seats... I've priced it where the premium paid is less than $75 per game for club seats over what you are paying for sideline seats and food and beverage if you take advantage of the club seat price discounts and tax deductability so we are not talking about a super high premium for those people who want to enjoy these amenities."
Yes, John, we do plan to open Miller Hall within this overall plan. Not sure what the exact details will be but this will give us about 6000 square feet of space that we can activate on the West concourse that could function just like the 3rd floor ballroom on game days. Lots of details yet to work out so stay tuned."
Originally posted by jruggeri:
In the facilities update, they mentioned Andy Miller Hall access. At one time talking to Manager of the University Center Club, that they were going to try and make that hall available to members of UCC just like the third floor in the end zone is available now. It would allow those of us who are UCC members and sit on the West side to have access to Air Conditioned space that was not so far away. Does anyone know if that is why the access to the hall is included in the facilities update report?
Phil,
Originally posted by jupiternole:
Seminoles,
Please reach out to me with any questions regarding The Champions Club or Seminole Boosters in general. My e-mail is pdoumar@fsu.edu and I would be glad to explain in detail what we have going on.
Phil Doumar
Seminole Boosters, Inc.
It was mentioned that more space will be given to each seat. Does that mean you will be adding seat backs to each seat?
Nolester,
we're looking into widening the space assigned to each seat, adding an inch or two, which would affect a re-seating as you eliminate seats from each row by doing that. I think it will help but its not the ultimate solution you describe which would have chairbacks.
I am on the team doing the study with architects and engineers and unfortunately our problem with Doak is that the "run" on each row -- the distance between rows -- is only 27 inches. In order to put chairback seats in you need at least 30 inches and preferably 33 inches or more so that your knees are not impaired by the chairback in front of you. In order to accomplish that, we'd have to replace all the plates in the stadium that the bleachers are attached to and replace them with plates with the right 'run".
You would not want to do it for the whole stadium as it would reduce capacity to about 58,000 as it would also trigger other code improvements we'd be required to make.
You wouldn't need to do the student section of 17,000 as they don't sit anyway, nor would you be required to do the visiting team area (10,000 allotment), and you may not need to do some other areas either.
What we're considering is defined sections that would be enhanced along the sidelines that improve the legroom and allow for chairback seats.
We have a lot of study with sight lines underway.
Anyone is free to email me at jkutz@fsu.edu if they are interested in learning more.
Jerry"
Yes it will and we think for the better.
Originally posted by bhamFSU:
Will the new Club Area affect the game day experience for the University Club at all? I sure hope not!!!!!!
I am on the board of the UCC and my responsibility to the Boosters is the Doak renovations including the club seat section so I have a lot of dialogue on this subject with the board and with members. I always tell them this is what I know I know. And this is what I know I don't know.
If you are a UCC member who buys single game tickets, you know that you are limited to how many you can buy for the big games and that there are no reserved seats which creates havoc sometimes. You also know that the tents on the decks, the bathrooms and elevators are what they are.
With the new club, you will still be able to buy single game tickets (either until they sell out or from another club seat holder who can't go) but you will find six additional high speed elevators, 100 more bathroom fixtures, a huge, permanent roof that will cover the entire terrace and you'll have a RESERVED seat that you don't have to arm wrestle someone to use.
If you are not a grill ticket buyer but one who just uses the club before or during the game to get a drink, you'll be glad to know that you will still have access to do so only now you will have better access and to more including the West side Miller Hall project.
this is not to mention that the 70,000 sq ft we are adding, and the 32,000 sq ft covered rooftop terraces will be available to UCC members year round for weddings, conferences, etc.
Yes, we are changing your experience and we think once you experience it you will agree its for the better.
email me if you have questions at jkutz@fsu.edu"
ask any college or pro team, not to decide is to decide.
Originally posted by appynole:
What ever happened to just going to a game to enjoy a game? Now we have to have ultimate "fan experience".
Your die-hard fans will come rain, sun or snow but you will go broke if your revenue stream is in the 80 percentile. To achieve what FSU wants to achieve, to fund 21 sports at a high level and attract the top recruits, we need to push 100 percent which means providing experiences for that extra portion that means the difference between success and failure.
As Wilcox said, sports is competing against HDTV and the man cave. You have to provide it if you want to be cutting edge and fill the stadium. Got to have something for everyone and their spouse too."
Originally posted by appynole:
What ever happened to just going to a game to enjoy a game? Now we have to have ultimate "fan experience".
ask any college or pro team, not to decide is to decide.
Your die-hard fans will come rain, sun or snow but you will go broke if your revenue stream is in the 80 percentile. To achieve what FSU wants to achieve, to fund 21 sports at a high level and attract the top recruits, we need to push 100 percent which means providing experiences for that extra portion that means the difference between success and failure.
As Wilcox said, sports is competing against HDTV and the man cave. You have to provide it if you want to be cutting edge and fill the stadium. Got to have something for everyone and their spouse too.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
My spouse is requesting a retractable roof, how soon can we expect that LMAO?
Don't laugh. We priced one. You see the pros putting them in down here, don't you? Jerry Jones may be a lot of things but stupid is not one.
Write down your thoughts about what you think stadiums will be in 10 years, seal the envelope and store it, and then come back 10 years from now to see how close your thoughts were to what the reality will be. Its a fun exercise for fans but not so fun for the people charged with making these multi-million dollar decisions.
The experts in stadium design crunch all kinds of numbers. Surveys are nice but buyer's actual behaviors are far more predictive and there are plenty of real life examples out there including more than 50 club seat projects in collegiate stadiums.
While these enhancements are expensive, not enhancing your stadium can be suicide if the generations of fans you are marketing to aren't able or willing to come to your stadium except on Easter Sunday. You have to monitize every Saturday in the fall to fund 21 sports. And if you want to be cutting edge, which we do, you have to find ways to monetize your stadium more than seven weekends a year. If a roof means you can host large concerts or other major events throughout the year, and monetize the profitable concessions, merchandise and parking at those events -- not to mention bring people to College Town that the Boosters own and to other businesses near the stadium -- then it wouldn't be so silly, would it?
Don't see us doing the roof just yet but everything we are considering has an eye to monetizing the stadium in any tasteful way. Texas is a wealthy athletic department. They have oil and lots of alumni who have oil. Yet their football stadium is the number 1 revenue producing venue in Austin, Tx. They activate their stadium for weddings, conferences, conventions, concerts, you name it.
While we activate ours with the university center club, and classroom office building year round, we can do even more with the Champions Club, which becomes a natural ampi-theater for concerts and events. We are also looking at other modifications we can make to the stadium area that would enable us to generate even more profit on an asset that sits largely vacant 358 days a year.
You have to think out of the box to compete at the elite level."
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