FSU Booster #s & History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCoh8WMZ_O4

FSU AD Alford notes FSU has the most living alumni in the ACC (375K), 50k more than UNC.  But it's only 6th or 7th in the number of boosters in the ACC.

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/booster-memberships.344375/

Jerry Kutz 2/6/2023

I received a brochure in the mail this week that put the current number at 12,410 members for 2022.
The brochure also said only 82 percent of members renewed in 2022. That's not good. You need a 90 percent renewal rate to grow or you have to sign up a lot more new members than the 2081 first-year members reported they added. That's a good number of new members but if you are only able to renew 82 percent, you are not even treading water with 2,081 new members.

Here's the math: If they had 12,600 in 2021 and renewed 82 percent, that means they renewed 10,361 members. Adding 2,081 new members brought them to 12,410, which is less than the 12,600 they had in 2021.

Little history: The most members the Boosters ever had was 21,000 back in 1987. When I was the annual fund manager, we hit 19,000 but that was back when Bobby was winning, back when you could be a Booster for as little as $25.00 and back before three ticket-priority policy changes that chase off season ticket holders and donors.

How many members you have is directly correlated to winning at Florida State (and probably most places.)

Towards the end of the Bowden era, when FSU was no longer contending for the National Championship, the number of Boosters fell from 19,000 to 10,000... and season tickets fell from 41,000 to 20,000, inspite of the fact athletics and the Boosters were spending just as much time and money marketing Boosters and tickets as they were when they had 19,000 Boosters and 41,000 season ticket sales (about 10,000 buyers).

Going into 2013, FSU had grown the season tickets back to a respectable 30,000 with about 13,000 Boosters. FSU won the national championship and the next year season tickets went back to 40,000 and the Booster memberships bumped up too...

Winning matters. The Booster office tells me season ticket sales are well ahead of last year and that Booster memberships should be higher in 2023.

I think fans are happy and hopeful, which they have not been in years. If they are, then the renewal rate will climb back to 90 percent, where it needs to be to grow, and you'll see new people join and buy season tickets.

The most impressive number on the brochure I got was that 37 percent of Booster members are not season ticket holders. That's a record I believe at FSU. The best I remember during my tenure was 30 percent and that was considered remarkably high as most schools had fewer than 10 percent donate without doing it to get season tickets.

One last point: Those numbers (12,410) count only annual fund donors. There are probably 1,000 capital campaign or coaches clubs donors who are not counted in the 12,410 as they don't give to the annual fund too.