candalina

On May 23, 2016 at 10:40 AM, Raetus said:

I'll more than take all the hate that will come my way for saying this, but I'll just be honest and say that I don't see the value in season tickets or mega donations (for sports), at the moment. For me, personally (and only me), there's no ticket or area of Raymond James that I desire to hold or maintain. The best experience in the house is the student section and that (rightfully so) is reserved for the students. When that was no longer an option for me, I bounced around to various seats and areas and it's been a rather 'meh' experience in each of them. No matter where you sit, you're either standing too much or too little and someone is moaning about the person in front or back of them. It's also absurdly easy to get box seats to basically any game except for FSU, so I just don't see much of a ROI for season tickets.

RJS is a nice stadium, though, so I'm not knocking it, but it's not ours. I've inherited Michigan season tickets on the 40 yard line through marriage and I make sure to keep access to those even though there's no way I'll be able to make it to games there very often. I keep them because they've been in the family multiple generations and once they lapse, they're gone. There's nothing like that at RJS that makes me feel the need to keep access to them. Now, if USF said that they'd like to build a stadium of their own in five years and were offering a payment plan to allow first dib access to a section of prime seats... that's something I'd be incredibly interested in.

If you called me, today, with a payment plan of $200 a month for 5 years that gave me access to a set of prime seats in our to-be-built stadium, I'd jump on it in a second. That's $12k over a 5 year period AND I'd still, then, have to make a donation and purchase my tickets for each year. If you can find 5,000 people like myself, that's $60 million dollars and you've only allotted 5k seats in the stadium, yet, financed a significant chunk of the build. Sure, you haven't financed all of it, but you've made a great step forward.

That's what it will take to get significant money out of me -- something that I actually want. As I did enjoy my time at football, basketball, and soccer games while I was a student, I won't complain too much about the athletic fees, but the academic experience was mediocre while I was there in comparison to other universities that I'm affiliated with, so I feel I've given USF more than my fair share of funds for what I actually received in return. Therefore, I feel zero impetus to blindly donate money without receiving something quality in return. If USF is looking for blind zealous donations, they need to step-up their indoctrination game in the younger, formative years. They've taken some great steps forward in this regard, but that will take awhile to come home to roost.

I was at a gathering at the house of a prominent Tampa Bay family (I won't say names, but... real estate) and the topic of USF athletics came up. The general consensus was unless you're an alumni looking to give back or you're looking for an inexpensive way to put your name on something, there wasn't much value you there in donating to Football -- Basketball actually was much better received because of the Sun Dome. Many of them noted they already have suites at RJS, so they already had access to home games if they wanted to attend. From talking with people, none of them cared whether it was on or off campus, but a stadium that actually looked like it was owned by USF would be a big deal in their eyes for the University and was something that piqued interest. In general, it seemed none of these people would ever set foot in the place besides the grand opening, but they're always looking for an additional talking piece to add to their repertoire and something to let the grandkids use.

Also, it doesn't have to be strictly for a stadium, either; if they put forth something that I want, I'll be all about it. I'd pay $2500 for a parking pass that let me park in whatever zone I want up-to 5 times a year and was good for 15 years -- that'd be worth it to me. How many times will I actually use that pass? Probably 10-20... good value for the price? Nope. I could just park wherever I want and pay the parking tickets and it would be cheaper, but it's like offering VIP status at a night club... it's not actually a good deal, but people will pay for convenience and faux status. So far, though, I'm seeing zero creativity from USF, which may lead to apathy and stagnation from a sect of fans.

tl;dr: If USF thinks that they're going to raise the requisite support necessary to compete with more storied universities without offering something of merit in return, they're crazy. If that's the plan, they're more than welcome to continue down the current path and make the best use out of their continued level of support from tried-and-true donors who've always graciously supported the university. I'll go to football games and in the event I decide to sit in the stands instead of a box, I'll purchase them directly through USF or StubHub depending on where I can get the best seat.

If USF is going to get an OCS, they are not going to get it by people thinking their money is only good for an OCS. Did you read the strategic plan? Did you see how far behind revenue goals they are? We want to be good? We want an OCS? 

If we want to be good, we have to show recruits that we care about USF Football. If we can do that/show a good experience for fans/recruits at the games, we will get better recruits. Better recruits = better team = more wins = more fans = more money = better chance of getting an OCS. 

If every alumna of USF donated $100, we would be 1/4 of the way to an OCS. Do the math.