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FSU AD Michael Alford discusses Doak renovation, ticket sales with Osceola

Photo by Mike Olivella

By Bob Ferrante and Jerry Kutz

When the calendar flipped to July, you could embrace this thought: Florida State plays football next month.

While kickoff against Alabama on Aug. 30 is still more than 55 days out, there is excitement to watch the new-look 2025 Seminoles on the field. But there’s also enthusiasm to see the new look of Doak Campbell Stadium.

“When you walk in there, it's just breathtaking the difference that it is going to be when fans first enter the stadium,” FSU athletics director Michael Alford told the Osceola on Tuesday. “We're super excited about it. Construction is going well.”

Alford said construction is on track for “substantial completion” of the renovation to the west side of Doak by the end of July, and crews then can go through final punch lists in August.

“We'll do some dry-run throughs with our staff, fire up the kitchens,” Alford said. “Make sure everything's burning well all throughout August, even have a couple of events in there to get our feet wet in it.”

Single-game ticket sales begin Tuesday

If you can’t make it to Tallahassee for all seven home games in 2025, the opportunity to purchase single-game tickets is approaching quickly. Seminole Boosters members can buy single-game tickets starting Tuesday in the following priority order:

Tuesday, July 8 — Booster members at the Silver Chief level and above

Wednesday, July 9 — All Booster members

Thursday, July 10 — General public

Alford said FSU has sold approximately 27,000 season tickets for the 2025 season. But he admitted FSU has been historically among the lowest in the ACC in terms of season ticket sales, and pointed to Clemson as having 58,000 season-ticket holders.

“We backfill with single-game sales,” Alford said. “And do that with people coming to Tallahassee and sell out the stadium that way.”

While part of the issue is the Seminoles coming off a 2-10 season in 2024, the major factor has always been Tallahassee is a long hike on a boring interstate for large groups of FSU alumni in South Florida, Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Atlanta. More than 65 percent of FSU’s season-ticket base travels 150 or more miles on game days, which is larger than any other Power 4 fan base.

While single game tickets will go on sale Tuesday, the Seminole ticket office will continue to be selling season tickets. And there are good seats still available in a variety of locations and price points, Director of Ticket Sales Mark Cameron said.

Location, price and quantity available

East Sideline: There are a couple of thousand bleacher seats, mostly high, on the East Side of Doak with a total cost of $750 total cost per seat ($350 ticket cost plus $400 seat requirement). No capital gift is required.

West Sideline End Zone: A few hundred West side bleacher seats are available at a total cost of $600. These seats have seven inches more legroom than the East side seats and feature new restrooms and concessions. No capital gift is required.

Champions Club: A couple of hundred seats in the Dunlap Champions Club remain. The price varies between $1,000 - $2,000 per seat, which includes both the seat price and seat requirement. The capital gift varies by location from $0 to $2,000.

West Sideline Chair-back seats: A few thousand Chair-back seats remain on the West side with prices ranging between $1,250 and $2,000 each, which includes the seat price and the seat requirement. Most of the available seats closest to the 50-yard line are located in the upper rows. If you prefer lower-row seats, there is availability between the 20- and 30-yard lines. The capital gift requirement per seat varies by location.

West Sideline Club seats: Sold out.

Want to Sample Doak? The Nole Pass

Florida State is re-introducing a mobile pass that grew in popularity before Covid. Rebranded the “Nole Pass” this mobile ticket guarantees you seven games for $650 per seat (including the ticket price and seat requirement) with a twist. Each game, based on availability, the mobile Nole Pass holder will be assigned in a different section of Doak, so you could be assigned seats on the east side for some games and the west side for others – including maybe the Chair-back seats for others.

If you’re stadium curious, and open to meeting new Seminoles, the Nole Pass offers you a charcuterie board of seating experiences.

For more information on ticket opportunities go to SeminoleBoosters.com.

Driving season-ticket sales point to fans

Every seat in Doak is potential revenue for FSU athletics. Note the words “FSU athletics.”

Football ticket sales are the major revenue driver, funding not just FSU football but ensuring the athletics department can fully fund all of the Seminoles’ athletics teams.

The value of a season-ticket holder is that FSU athletics has an assurance of the financial commitment for the full fall football schedule, money that can be budgeted toward needs in all sports for the fiscal year.

“Something we're working on, something we're trying to grow, (is to) continuously educate people on how important a season ticket is for us,” Alford said. “We're making small steps in that. But it is important that we get as many season tickets sold as possible going into season.

“A season ticket allows us to understand that we have income coming in to be able to supplement these other sports moving forward. And really to plan ahead for these other sports. There's a lot of times we'll want to do something with softball or especially a spring sport, but we'll be holding off because that revenue is not guaranteed until we see how football is doing. So the more season ticket holders we have, the more guaranteed income, revenues that we have, that we will be able to plan ahead for those other sports.”

Look for more from the Osceola’s interview with Alford in the coming days. Subscribe to the Osceola at theOsceola.com/upgrade

In case you missed it

Four-star DL commits to FSU

Four-star DL Earnest Rankins committed to FSU on Thursday, giving the Seminoles 21 commits in the class of 2021. FSU now has the No. 11 class in On3’s rankings.

READ MORE ON RANKINS’ COMMITMENT →

July 1 brought about the beginning of a new era in college athletics. Jerry Kutz writes about how college athletics departments don’t operate at a profit but now are allocating $22.5 million toward revenue sharing with athletes in 2025-26.

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