Time for USF to get serious about on-campus football stadium

[Paisa el Toro]

Game attendance shouldn't ride or die by the students. As a recent grad who went to every home game, it's extremely annoying to constantly hear the students being blamed for the lack of crowd when it's not just the students who show up to games. The athletics department has done wonders in getting the students who do go to the games to go out and support a team that quite frankly has been atrocious at home up until this year. A perfect example of this are both the Temple and the Cinci games. For both games the student section was about 90% full, whereas the rest of the stadium was no where near that full. So rather than constantly blame the students, blame those who are not students and choose not to go. 

Agreed regarding the students. We don't have the most consistent season ticket holders. I'd like to see an upward and consistent trajectory of season tickets being sold. Next season there will be an uptick due to the Seminoles trying to get tickets to see their school. It'd be fantastic if our season ticket holders didn't make it so easy for FSU fans to get tickets. We just haven't evolved to a point where 1) there's enough USF demand for season tickets and 2) where the lure of selling seats to Seminole fans is less than supporting the Green and Gold. Once we get to a point where we are selling season tickets and keeping other fan bases from snapping up seats, at that point, we've earned OCS consideration. Until then, Ray Jay is nice and works.

[Triple B]

Game attendance shouldn't ride or die by the students. As a recent grad who went to every home game, it's extremely annoying to constantly hear the students being blamed for the lack of crowd when it's not just the students who show up to games. The athletics department has done wonders in getting the students who do go to the games to go out and support a team that quite frankly has been atrocious at home up until this year. A perfect example of this are both the Temple and the Cinci games. For both games the student section was about 90% full, whereas the rest of the stadium was no where near that full. So rather than constantly blame the students, blame those who are not students and choose not to go. 

Exactly ..... which is why their maybe added participation at an ocs isn't really a big factor in having one. And as far as the students this year, I thought they have been okay as far as attending  but I think you're 90% figure is a little ambitious. The ones who have shown up, though, have done a great job ...

[Triple B]

This entire thread is speculation. By the way I'm not against an OCS if it makes sense even though it would not benefit me personally. The logic behind my theory though is that many of the season tickets held by businesses are large businesses located in South Tampa/St Pete. South Tampa and St Pete are the locations of a large percentage of large businesses/corporations in the Tampa area. Also I would guess that many of those tickets are club and box seats (still speculation but from my personal experience that is what I have noticed). Would our OCS have enough funds to provide a large club section like RayJay has now? There is a reason many college stadiums are aluminum like UCF's - because they don't fill enough expensive seats year round to afford nice ammenities and USF doesn't have enough booster support to offset that. My guess is that the location shift and amenities that may no longer exist could very possibly affect the decisions of businesses to renew/buy season tickets. But again, like the rest of this thread, this is purely speculation.

I honestly think these are very good points. USF will need to do a lot more surveying of the donors to see how far they will go, financially, as far as supporting an ocs and this is why I don't think there's any way this MOSI thing has legs at this point.

Like the fan base had been spoiled by CJL's early success on the field, I think it's also been spoiled by the watching of games in a top notch football stadium since virtually the beginning. I believe we're a unique fan base in that regard and something a far cry from RayJay is going to be a tough sell for a lot of the mid to upper tier level season tix holders. Sure there's a lot of college football purists in our base that believe the more uncomfortable you are at a game, the more college football "feeling" it has ... which is fine. I just don't think it's a feeling that permeates the vast majority of our fanbase .... maybe I'm wrong.

BTW, there is NO substitute for Publix ...

[Bullsgrad2001]

Well, if they stay put at Ray Jay, would it kill the Glazers to put in high def for the Jumbotrons?  I feel like I'm looking at old Zenith broadcast when I look at replays on those things.

[GaUSFBull]

I don't think there's any way this MOSI thing has legs at this point.

Dude ... Painted David couldn't have used a larger, bolder font saying that not only does it have legs, but it's a done deal.  

Case closed, bro.

[cambodia36]

Well, if they stay put at Ray Jay, would it kill the Glazers to put in high def for the Jumbotrons?  I feel like I'm looking at old Zenith broadcast when I look at replays on those things.

They are updating those in the next 2 years I believe, but of course getting the taxpayers to pay for it. 

Agreed on the sponsors/donors take also- There are people I know/work with, some of whom even went to USF at one time who act like driving down Fowler is akin to driving down Crenshaw in Compton. You'd likely get an uptick from student crowds, but I think corporate/season tickets/ single game crowd would take a hit that would probably even it out, attendance wise, and those people actually pay for their seats. 

It will happen someday, but to expect them to even break ground anytime soon, or to expect public/University money to finance a new stadium in the near future.. I mean, I know some of you want it "cuz it's not FOOTBAW at a fancy pants pro stadium!" but it's just not a pressing issue considering the paltry crowds and step down in competition from the Big East days. 

Edited December 2, 2015 by cambodia36

[namuh-bull]

I said "besides UCF fans," because I don't feel they are representative of the rest of college football.  You apparently do, and them saying it is enough for you.  

You realize if they add us, that takes away from their conference revenue, right?  Do you really think the addition of a championship game will make up for that lost revenue?  This is exactly the reason they haven't added anyone else yet, because they don't feel that they have to.  If they get shut out of the playoffs again, they may be forced to rethink that.

The ACC will not be adding us.  Let's just get that out right now.  The B12 is pretty much our only hope, and they will only add us if they think we're the best available option to make them $ over the long haul, and because they think a CCG winner will be automatically in the playoffs.  It won't because we will, or won't, have a pretty new stadium on campus.  

The sad thing is I think the Big 12 is going to be broken up, with the best schools going to a variety of the other conferences.  The whole thing is supported by ESPN, and I look for them to trim expenses as cable cutting and ala carte channel offerings start to take hold.  The next TV contracts are going to be smaller than the current ones.  There will be many less viewers (the large majority of people I know don't watch and wouldn't buy ESPN if they could save money by not doing it), which means less of the pie to go around for everybody.  I see the Big 10, Pac 12, and even the SEC expanding.  Big 12 and ACC blown up.

All we can do is play the best we can and try to schedule good games.  I will say if most of the people around the Bay area knew how much fun this current USF team is to watch, there would be many more seats filled at the stadium.  I hope we can sell it out (lower level) next year for every game.

 

Go Bulls!

[bullsmeanbusiness]

 

Exactly ..... which is why their maybe added participation at an ocs isn't really a big factor in having one. And as far as the students this year, I thought they have been okay as far as attending  but I think you're 90% figure is a little ambitious. The ones who have shown up, though, have done a great job ...

 

I wasn't saying that was the whole season, just those two games.

[bullsmeanbusiness]

 

The sad thing is I think the Big 12 is going to be broken up, with the best schools going to a variety of the other conferences.  The whole thing is supported by ESPN, and I look for them to trim expenses as cable cutting and ala carte channel offerings start to take hold.  The next TV contracts are going to be smaller than the current ones.  There will be many less viewers (the large majority of people I know don't watch and wouldn't buy ESPN if they could save money by not doing it), which means less of the pie to go around for everybody.  I see the Big 10, Pac 12, and even the SEC expanding.  Big 12 and ACC blown up.

All we can do is play the best we can and try to schedule good games.  I will say if most of the people around the Bay area knew how much fun this current USF team is to watch, there would be many more seats filled at the stadium.  I hope we can sell it out (lower level) next year for every game.

 

Go Bulls!

Couldn't agree more, but scheduling teams like Towson, Stony Brook, UMass, and Elon are certainly not going to help our case IMO.

[slick1ru2]

Ray Jay is getting $100m dumped into it. No reason to leave but to get into debt.  

I wonder if UCF bond rating will drop after this season's meager attendance