StateRoad42

The swimming pool at Marlins Stadium always seems pretty popular ...

I think this would be great but make them transferable to family/friends. That gives more incentive to purchase-- I'd love to hand that down to my kids. You can prioritize price, location, etc. and fund $50M easily. You make sure these same people get a lanyard so staff greets / recognizes them. Want your family name / plaque on the seat? Add in another $2,500. Then annual cost for tickets at a reasonable figure and you have a built in down payment, consistent fan base. No reason why USF shouldn't give a discount incentive toward those who commit early.

John is my ticket rep and has been great. I've dealt with him for a few years now. Very good at follow up and not pushy which is a hard line to walk. I upgraded tickets this year just because of his follow up.

I have walked by that Hooters a million times - always wondered how it survived. All the amazing restaurants in DC, and you went there!? There's one over in Orlando, close to that other school. It SUCKS! That one closed down Kerr's / Winghouse has better wings and better talent at everyone I've been to. The one in Daytona near the speedway is insane... Bern's is solid but spendy. I've heard a lot about Oystercatcher's but neve been there. I'm told they have an incredible bloody mary brunch.

Good rec on the Rusty Pelican. Went there with my wife last Friday, great weather and seat right by the window overlooking the bay. Got the crab stuffed grouper. Solid eats. Indeed. Love the atmosphere and blackened scallops

LOUD NOISES!!!! Glazers are doing whatever they can to make money. USF could always work to cut a better deal. It's business and the Glazers are smart to get whatever money they can. The tax payers are dumb for letting them do it. Republic v.s. Democracy blah, blah, blah. Your poli-sci teacher is going to tell you it is a constitutional republic with democratically elected representatives but all of it is symantecs. A "democracy" implemented by representation isn't much different than a republic that is democratically elected. The only political science distinction is how power is delegated to the representative. In theory, the democracy requires the electorate to specifically dilenate exact issues and powers. We don't really do that. We elect a guy or gal on a general topic platform versus exact, specific issues with circumscribed authority on each issue. None of it, has anything to do with the topic and so... Mad Cow.

Winning Football Games attracts recruits not poorly cut Gold U's on mattre green helmets...

The highway system to St. Pete and Clearwater is a peice of cake and a beautiful drive. Don't let traffic discourage you. I make the trip every single day. Rush hour will add an extra 30 minutes on the bridges but avoid 4-6 p.m. and you'll avoid the delay. If you do head south toward St. Pete, I would say spend the extra 15 minutes driving to check out Fort DeSoto and Egmont Key. The Dali Museum is downtown on the way and very cool. Really worth the extra time. USF St. Pete is nearby as well. You can check out that very awesome satellite campus. The Clearwater beaches (Honeymoon, Caldessi, North Beach, etc.) are closer from Ybor but I don't know as many places to eat over there. Frenchy's is always popular but the food isn't really great. I would probably grab a cuban sandwich or PUBLIX SUB, for lunch and then eat dinner somewhere cool like the Rusty Pelican (high end) or Whiskey Joes on the way back. It's too bad you won't be here in October when Stone Crab is in season...

If you give us an idea of what you like, we can probably give better ideas. Locals don't spend a lot of time in Ybor but King Corona is always great for a cigar and pint. Fuente's humidor (Sweethearts) is a great place to find a unique stick. Arturo Jr. will help you out personally. The most notable landmark is the Columbia Restaurant which has great spanish food and live flamenco. I would recommend Hyde Park for night life over Ybor. Ybor is a club scene and can be pretty rough.

Coach McGeoghan, super nice guy. He came to our tailgate when USF laid that Holtzsquach egg in Miami last time we played down there. I remember that... Nice guy That was pretty cool. The game... less so.

Smazza... is..... right... Oh Lord, it hurts.

I dig the white helmets. It's one of the better looks. The new green helmet is super-awesome-neato-wow!!!!!! (sarcasm) becuase matte is like way-cool as off five years ago. The massive gold logo is awesome because cartoons are funny and big logos are trending now. Put them together and BOOM, neo-retro vomit. Just pick a da-gum design and stick with it for a while. If anything, add one new helmet to the rotation for a few games but don't change everything every couple of years. The pinstripped helmets were awesome. The team wasn't but neither have anyting to do with the other. Mike, you're a troll god.

Go Fishing and get out on the water. I would charter a boat for fishing (or spearfishing / diving if you're certified). Hell, rent a kayak and I'll point you toward fish. Ft. DeSoto and/or Egmont Key are nice touristy visits that have interesting history and nice beaches (passage key is a nudist floatilla island nearby... that's always good for a laugh). More north is Caladessi Island or any beach in between. They are more typical beach visits but I really love Caladessi. The University of Tampa in downtown has an awesome (small) museum with intersting notes about Tampa's history. It won't take more than an hour and gives a nice background to our "culture." There are tons of bars in South Tampa/Hyde Park. Ask for locations closer to the games and you'll end up with 5 or more to hop from. Good food ranges from the high end (Berns Steakhouse or my favorite alternative, Charlies) to salty crabtraps like Hula bay or Whiskey Joes. If you meet a nice gal, take her to the Rusty Pelican for a sunset appetizer, good piano music and stroll along the causeway. On Sunday, Hogan's Beach is pretty nuts. They usually have live music and some D-level celebrities catering to service industry folks (read, bartenders who don't work on Monday and plan on getting blasted with college kids). The Florida Aquarium is always fun (they have a great outdoor section with redfish/snook mangroves, otters, sharks, etc). Busch Gardens is good for roller coasters. Etc. etc. etc. Lots to do if you have the time. As far as tailgating goes, the youngins hang out at the mall (east of stadium) and get annihilated. The "Alumn" tend to be in the grass north or south of the stadium and get mostly annihilated. Food is critical, you'll need to find a grill if you can. It's not football without ribs, brats and Yuengling Beer (green bottle). My drink of choice.

The oversized logo with the way it's cut just looks cheap to me. I like the last set of updates if anything. The old school pinstrips are awesome but yada yada. It is what it is. The point is to drum up hype and get people talking. Here we are... As far as the Goat goes, I definitely prefer the "U" logo but would like to see some homage in the right circumstance. After we've actually accomplished something... I think it would be awesome to see the devil bull rear its hideous head once again (and only very briefly). Cousin Rick- the SR42 reference is actually a misnomer. It should be for CR42... but, yea.

New Helmets are vomit. Gimmicks to generate talk and it works so we keep doing it. I'd love to see a goat throwback helmet but only during a significant bowl game. Like a conference champship... Calvin and Hobbs rules. We did a recreation of the snowman apocalpyse cartoons when we got stranded in NC after a snow storm... This is a fistful of the pics. It really got out of control. The storyline was our good snowman turned evil, multipled, became aggressive and we had to defend ourselves. Now back to your regular programming...

Shaw-California Roll.

And beyond that, it did change the outcome. Just like the decision to onside probably did and the fact that Houston hung points on us. Every play matters but the ones that get taken away by some "officiating clairvoyant" are ones that hurt. Football is a game of inches. Every play is the play of the game. However, the one that sent me into a cussing fit was the pass interference call... We are squabbling over nothing...

I was watching the game up until that play. As I was driving home the radio announcers on Sirius 91 were livid. When I got home after the game the ESPN folks were debating how "ticky tacky" the call was and the fact that a game shouldn't be overturned on a hyper-technical OPI call. His arm was stretched out, yes, but that is a bologna call in that situation. It's just too close to change an outcome over. It's like tie going to the runner in baseball. If its that close, there's really no call. That little bit of pushing and shoving goes on all game long. Unless he judo chopped the guy, let it go.

Vomit. I couldn't handle that. Green grass and huge 5 story golden horns, now that I could dig. Speaking of pipe dreams, model us after US in the first half of 2007/2008... Win Some Games Please. Starting tomorrow.

Ouch. CJL was awesome.

I'm really happy with these so far. Keep up the good work. And Sager... you need to find a proper fish man. We need to introduce him to one of the local tarpon.

GOLD HELMETS!

One key problem you are overlooking is that the WSJ and NY Times have a better readership base and tend to lead coverage versus following. The times, to me, is worthless. The only thing I liked about it was GA's coverage. It was 90% of what I wanted to read when I was on the site. The Journal and Times can get away with charging because they are relevant. SPT/TBT is not.

Weak... how do you suppose they feed their kids? they can't work for free. The same way thousands of other "free" sites make money...advertisements. How does reducing your clicks/site visits help sell more ads? Guess that's why I'm not in the news business... Ditto. It's ridiculous that you would charge subscribers an online fee as well...

Man tremendously bummed about this. Greg has been 75% of my USF coverage for years. He was the only objective reporting that I cared to read. When it was bad, it was bad with logic behind it. I know I personally reposted hundreds of his stories over at ESP...whatever and frequently got responses from him personally. I always thought that was pretty cool and informative.