Unconquered

“We’re going the wrong way,” said Smith, a former member of FSU’s Board of Trustees. “Something is fundamentally wrong at Florida State.”

FSU's solution to this is simply to try and sell more tickets? I don't think they 'get it'. FSU's issues are MUCH bigger than that.

Booster contributions are huge, a playoff would also help alot, so much money there not being tapped into

I'd really like to see some detailed research done on spending of new construction/renovations for athletics. How much money has FSU/Boosters spent on recent expansions? How much money has gone to endowing scholarships? How poorly is FSU's athletics scholarship endowment performing in the market? What is the athletic department/Boosters bonded debt?

Here is some construction spending based on quick research

-Skybox Expansion-$3,042,077-Good project, revenue generator
-Unconquered Statue-$718,000-Good project, campus icon
-Mike Long Track Phase 2-$1,742,470-done in 2004
-Basketball Practice Facility-$9,158,686-probably FSU's best ROI
-Human Performance Lab-Track Expansion- $5,758,892-Nike paid for at least part of this. Did we really need more track expansion though?
-Football Practice Fields-$2,686,000-Likely needed, especially with IPF getting built, but heads should roll if the issues aren't corrected at no cost to FSU/Boosters.
-Covered Tennis Facility-$4,000,000-should be lower on the athletics priority list, though State PECO may have been partially used.
-Howser Stadium Renovations-$13,739,750.60-Personally think they did a very poor job with the exterior architectural elements, but other than that fantastic job and Howser should be set for years
-Morcom Aquatics Center-$11,054,464-Pretty sure some state PECO money was used, but some also probably came from athletics. Built right around financial crisis. Probably not a wise investment in retrospect.
-Moore Center?
-Softball/Soccer Complex-anyone know?
-Golf?
Others?

A lot of that stuff was built/planned prior to the financial crisis. We now have pretty good facilities for all of our non-revenue sports, but are probably going to have to shift our financial focus strictly towards revenue generation. I think we all love going to the Final 4 in soccer or having a track team that puts guys in the Olympics, but the blunt reality is that FSU athletics and The Boosters need to shift focus to sports that drive revenue and donations (Football, Basketball, and to a lesser extent baseball). Look I love finishing 5th or whatever in the Sears Cup and there is some value in being known as a great all around sports school. At the end of the day we can't sacrifice Football and Basketball success for swimming, tennis, golf, etc teams that nobody even watches or pays attention to nationally/regionally.

We need to pay down any debt, endow scholarships, and get our financial house in order before we give anymore money to non-revenue sports for renovations/upgrades.

Makes moving to the Big 12 all the more practical...

How does the WVU game hurt us? We will likely pull in more revenue from two home games against patsies than from a home and home against WVU. Not to mention more home games means keeping area businesses happy.

No way. Hard to to put an exact figure on it, but if WVU was on the schedule this year that is >2,000 more season tickets sold. Not to mention individual tickets would sell out and face value would be substantially higher. A sellout against WVU also gives us more concession revenue and more merchandise revenue. Probably other things I'm forgetting. When teams like OU and WVU come to Tallahassee they (and FSU fans) spend SUBSTANTIALLY more than when we play crap teams. When we play cupcakes, I will sometimes drive over from Jax and right home after. Or just spend one night in Tally. But when we play UF, UM, WVU, OU, etc I'll stay in Tally Friday-Sun and spend much more.

You are also failing to realize that FSU makes money off OOC road games and doesn't have to pay some garbage team to play us.

This is the downside to conference expansion. If WVU had stayed in the Big East, they would not have paid an exit fee to the Big East and a settlement to cancel their FSU game.

Conference expansion is not about the game of football, or even the fans. It's about money pure & simple. Here, the money is biting WVU and FSU. FSU is an innocent bystander victimized directly by WVU, and indirectly by the Big12 expansion, as well as the Big East for allowing WVU to exit early.

Other lesser victims: all the remaining teams in the Big East. They have to scramble to fill their schedules.

Especially when a BCS bowl appearance this year could make up that deficit next year with increased Booster contributions and season ticket purchases.