Many of the points you make are very cogent but FSU has been competing against the Big Boys for decades and they managed. No longer. In the blink of an eye, CFB has exploded and the money involved is almost too great to fathom. It is literally life or death now for any program outside of the P2. You get…
Many of the points you make are very cogent but FSU has been competing against the Big Boys for decades and they managed. No longer. In the blink of an eye, CFB has exploded and the money involved is almost too great to fathom. It is literally life or death now for any program outside of the P2. You get into one or you slowly fade away. Within a few years, no program outside of a P2 will ever win a natty. College football is more NFL than amateur. It takes cubic yards of money to compete and that goes for facilities as well. FSU is spending over $300m to renovate their stadium. And that renovation consists of totally demolishing all of the interior and building new stands with individual seats, no more bleacher benches. It will reduce capacity by 8,000 +/- but will give a more prime experience, oh, and by the way, those ticket prices are doubling. It’s not a college football game anymore, it’s an “experience”. Of course, all the decades-long season ticket holders whose seats have simply disappeared in the downsizing are just collateral damage.
And, next to the stadium, they are building a $138m football-only Taj Mahal, touted as the most advanced in the country, oh, and five star hotel lavish. That is the cost of competing in 2024.
But, as I just sit here an ocean away, it all seems distantly amusing. I follow it out of being an alumni who, decades ago, went to a number of those games and look back with fond memory. I still follow the football team with interest but feel like I am witnessing a new, strange world evolving that I don’t understand.
Sic 'em. Yeah, honestly, I did not catch it, the always-right grammar check did. I debated just leaving it, but, since we don't know each other's level of grammar Nazism, I decided to go full formal. Enough of that, I'ma doing my own grammar conventions, anyway. Your welcome to join me. LOL
"I still follow the football team with interest but feel like I am witnessing a new, strange world evolving that I don’t understand." This is the moist resounding truth, here stated. Amateur athletics died decades, ago. Now that it's 😜professionalism is out in the open, we're in a no-limit poker game from Hell.
Again, best of luck to the Noles. Yeah, fond memories, not the damned Leftist biases, keep me rooting for and loyal to Cal. And, in any case, God bless America.
On a personal note. Northern/Central Florida is part of my family's heritage. My 2X great grandfather was the original European (English-American) settler of the Orlando area. It was originally named for him, but some moneyed developers came in and renamed it Orlando. Fun Fact: He organized a militia to fight in the Seminole Wars. The Seminoles and the settlers could be very brutal with each other.
Oh, it took us a season or two to complete renovations, including for earthquakes. Yes, individual seats and more leg/butt room for us fatter, later generations. LOL. Will the Noles renos be ready for the Cal game?
Seriously doubt it. When I went there, shortly before they had electricity and indoor plumbing, the stadium was just a big erector set thrown together with no eye for esthetics. Just naked stands exposed on the back side. Then about 20-30 years ago, they went totally in the opposite direction and wrapped the stadium with offices and other stuff in a beautiful brick design. It is the largest brick structure in North America. Never thought that anything else was needed. But now they have reversed course and torn out everything that was there when I was. Damn sure baffled as to how new seating would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The new football-only pleasure palace is going to be the first to be geared towards VR training. The QB’s can put their VR goggles on and play very realistic games and have coaches pointing out what they are supposed to do and, after, what they did wrong. And then go back and do it all over again. I think that is a fantastic way to accelerate the learning curve. Future QBs are going to be so much more prepared and productive.
You absolutely have to have facilities like that now for recruiting. A five star phenom goes to School A and sees their megadollar emporium, then goes to B and then to C and then to D, but D doesn’t have one. What are the odds he is going to D? Less than 10%. It’s not that a school needs one, it’s that they can NOT not have one. New world. New expectations.
Sounds like a lot of waste going on. Too bad. Welp. Yes, a Brave New World for college sports. I guess we’re getting our D1 program at a bargain rate. Aaron Rodgers paid for an all refurbished locker room and training center. Stanfurd (that’s how we spell it) has been doing the VR training for quite a few years, now. It really makes a difference. Builds reaction time and muscle memory.
Don’t sic me you pompous dweeb. LOL
Many of the points you make are very cogent but FSU has been competing against the Big Boys for decades and they managed. No longer. In the blink of an eye, CFB has exploded and the money involved is almost too great to fathom. It is literally life or death now for any program outside of the P2. You get into one or you slowly fade away. Within a few years, no program outside of a P2 will ever win a natty. College football is more NFL than amateur. It takes cubic yards of money to compete and that goes for facilities as well. FSU is spending over $300m to renovate their stadium. And that renovation consists of totally demolishing all of the interior and building new stands with individual seats, no more bleacher benches. It will reduce capacity by 8,000 +/- but will give a more prime experience, oh, and by the way, those ticket prices are doubling. It’s not a college football game anymore, it’s an “experience”. Of course, all the decades-long season ticket holders whose seats have simply disappeared in the downsizing are just collateral damage.
And, next to the stadium, they are building a $138m football-only Taj Mahal, touted as the most advanced in the country, oh, and five star hotel lavish. That is the cost of competing in 2024.
But, as I just sit here an ocean away, it all seems distantly amusing. I follow it out of being an alumni who, decades ago, went to a number of those games and look back with fond memory. I still follow the football team with interest but feel like I am witnessing a new, strange world evolving that I don’t understand.
Sic 'em. Yeah, honestly, I did not catch it, the always-right grammar check did. I debated just leaving it, but, since we don't know each other's level of grammar Nazism, I decided to go full formal. Enough of that, I'ma doing my own grammar conventions, anyway. Your welcome to join me. LOL
"I still follow the football team with interest but feel like I am witnessing a new, strange world evolving that I don’t understand." This is the moist resounding truth, here stated. Amateur athletics died decades, ago. Now that it's 😜professionalism is out in the open, we're in a no-limit poker game from Hell.
Again, best of luck to the Noles. Yeah, fond memories, not the damned Leftist biases, keep me rooting for and loyal to Cal. And, in any case, God bless America.
On a personal note. Northern/Central Florida is part of my family's heritage. My 2X great grandfather was the original European (English-American) settler of the Orlando area. It was originally named for him, but some moneyed developers came in and renamed it Orlando. Fun Fact: He organized a militia to fight in the Seminole Wars. The Seminoles and the settlers could be very brutal with each other.
Oh, it took us a season or two to complete renovations, including for earthquakes. Yes, individual seats and more leg/butt room for us fatter, later generations. LOL. Will the Noles renos be ready for the Cal game?
Seriously doubt it. When I went there, shortly before they had electricity and indoor plumbing, the stadium was just a big erector set thrown together with no eye for esthetics. Just naked stands exposed on the back side. Then about 20-30 years ago, they went totally in the opposite direction and wrapped the stadium with offices and other stuff in a beautiful brick design. It is the largest brick structure in North America. Never thought that anything else was needed. But now they have reversed course and torn out everything that was there when I was. Damn sure baffled as to how new seating would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The new football-only pleasure palace is going to be the first to be geared towards VR training. The QB’s can put their VR goggles on and play very realistic games and have coaches pointing out what they are supposed to do and, after, what they did wrong. And then go back and do it all over again. I think that is a fantastic way to accelerate the learning curve. Future QBs are going to be so much more prepared and productive.
You absolutely have to have facilities like that now for recruiting. A five star phenom goes to School A and sees their megadollar emporium, then goes to B and then to C and then to D, but D doesn’t have one. What are the odds he is going to D? Less than 10%. It’s not that a school needs one, it’s that they can NOT not have one. New world. New expectations.
Sounds like a lot of waste going on. Too bad. Welp. Yes, a Brave New World for college sports. I guess we’re getting our D1 program at a bargain rate. Aaron Rodgers paid for an all refurbished locker room and training center. Stanfurd (that’s how we spell it) has been doing the VR training for quite a few years, now. It really makes a difference. Builds reaction time and muscle memory.