Based on strong early demand, Florida State expects big jump in 2023 season ticket sales
Florida State reversed a five-year downturn in attendance at Doak Cambell Stadium during last season’s 10-win campaign, and now the Seminoles are really looking to cash in with the strongest ticket sales they have seen in nearly a decade.
FSU ranked 21st nationally in home game attendance last season with an average of 67,254 fans per game. That was a hefty increase from the 58,679 average of 2021, and there are signs that the Seminoles could soar closer to 75,000 or more in 2023 — numbers Florida State hasn’t reached since 2014-2016.
“Ticket sales are going great. We’re doing the best we’ve done since 2014, I believe,” Florida State athletics director Michael Alford said Monday in an interview with Warchant.com. “We’re pacing ahead of where we were last year. The new ticket purchasers are higher already than we were last year, and normally July and August are really key months for us going into the season.
“We’ve already sold more [new] tickets than we did last year, and we haven’t gotten to our key months yet.”
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There obviously is plenty of reason for that improved interest.
After failing to finish above .500 for four straight years, Florida State went 10-3 in 2022. In Mike Norvell’s third year as head coach, the Seminoles beat rivals Florida and Miami in the same season for the first time since 2016, and they also picked up impressive neutral-site wins against LSU and Oklahoma.
With the vast majority of the team’s production returning on both sides of the ball — and with marquee players like Jordan Travis, Jared Verse, Johnny Wilson and Trey Benson headlining the roster — Florida State has become a trendy pick to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and make a run to the College Football Playoff.
That enthusiasm is evident in the Seminoles’ ticket demand.
“People are excited about this season,” Alford said. “It speaks volumes about not only Coach Norvell and what he’s done, but the character of our young men. People gravitate to them. They’re great people, they relate to people in the community, and it makes people want to support them.”
After seeing its average home attendance soar to 82,211 in 2014 — the year following a national championship season — Florida State’s ticket sales decreased pretty steadily over the next several seasons.
The Seminoles averaged 73,219 in 2015 and 76,000 in 2016, but the numbers plunged during the end of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure and didn’t start to recover until 2022.
Florida State saw its home average drop to 54,019 in 2019 after the Seminoles went 5-7 in Willie Taggart’s first season, and it obviously plunged even further when attendance was limited by COVID in 2020.
After recovering modestly in 2021, the average jumped by nearly 9,000 last season, and it could see a similar improvement in 2023.
“To see where our numbers are right now, I expect us to finish close to some of our all-time highs this upcoming year,” Alford said.
Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.
