Florida State, Boise State execute ‘seamless’ plan to move football game to Tallahassee
In the hours before Florida State announced that it would move its season-opening football game against Boise State to Tallahassee, the Seminoles staff held conversations with community partners to find out whether that was even feasible.
And they counted on those partners to keep the talks private until a final decision was made with Hurricane Dorian on the way.
Among the considerations: whether the town had enough available hotel rooms to handle the two teams and an influx of fans; whether enough workers could be found on short notice to handle the game-day operation; and whether the Doak Campbell field and infrastructure could be ready to hold its first game of the season a week earlier than expected.
For a short time, Florida State was working on parallel plans — one to stage the game in Jacksonville as scheduled, the other to hold it about 170 miles away on campus in Tallahassee. The final decision was made Thursday morning.
“You have to have some trusted partners here in Tallahassee to have those conversations you need without it starting a panic in Tallahassee or even throughout the state because of word getting out,” Florida State Senior Associate Athletics Director Jim Curry said Friday in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. “... It’s been an incredible — just an incredible — effort by everybody involved, across the university, inside and outside of athletics; our partners outside the university; Boise State has been fantastic throughout this whole thing; ESPN, the ACC, the Mountain West, the folks in Jacksonville.
“The one thing about it, you can’t execute something like this within a 48-hour window unless you have everybody working in concert.”
On Thursday morning, the field wasn’t even painted. The grounds crew began work that day and finished Friday.
Florida State also had to schedule law enforcement and security personnel; prep the concession stands; sell game tickets (at $10 each online); process refunds for those who bought Jacksonville tickets; acquire hotel space for both teams; and confirm that the stadium electronics were in working order because of construction. Florida State also helped Boise State get buses.
Boise State’s entire team was able to be accommodated by a single hotel. Some members of the travel party will stay elsewhere, though.
The Broncos decided to stick to their original schedule Thursday, flying to Jacksonville and staying there. They practiced Friday at Bartram Trail High south of Jacksonville — reserve quarterback Riley Smith’s old school — but had to wait out a lightning delay.
Joe Nickell, Boise State’s associate athletic director for communications, said one lightning strike shook his car. The first place he stopped for gas didn’t have any left.
But logistically, he said the trip came together well. The Broncos will have to wait around Saturday after the game because their charter airplane will pick them up in Tallahassee at the same time originally scheduled for Jacksonville.
The Broncos were working on plans beginning Tuesday to play Friday night or Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Director of Football Operations Joel Schneider said. Tallahassee still wasn’t considered an option during a Wednesday evening conference call, he said, but that changed Thursday morning.
“With everybody helping, it all came together really seamlessly,” Nickell said. “As good as anyone could have possibly hoped.”
Some of the tradition surrounding a Florida State home game won’t be staged, primarily activities that happen outside the stadium in the 24 hours leading up to kickoff. But this should look and feel like a regular home game, Curry said, complete with Osceola and horse Renegade planting a flaming spear in the field before kickoff.
In the first 10 hours after the announcement, Florida State sold 20,000 tickets for the game, Curry said. That doesn’t include students, who get in free.
“It’s gonna happen,” Curry said of the game, “and it’s gonna be pretty awesome. ... The things you really hope to see when you get here — like Osceola and Renegade — that will be there and that will be memorable for sure.”
Hurricane Dorian, which is forecast to become a massive storm and strike Florida Monday or Tuesday, forced Florida State’s hand on moving the game not only because of the potential weather but because of the impact a game and its fans could have on the state’s evacuation plan, Curry said. Friday afternoon, folks already were checking into Tallahassee hotels to escape the coming storm.
The game time was moved from 5 p.m. Mountain to 10 a.m. Mountain because there weren’t enough hotel rooms available in Tallahassee on Saturday night, Curry said. Two-thirds of the Seminoles’ season-ticket holders come from 150 miles or more away, he said.
The new game time forced a TV change — from a prime-time slot on ESPN to a morning slot on ESPNews.
Fans will be allowed into the stadium two hours before kickoff with all general-admission seating.
“What I’m hoping to see and what I’m expecting to see is we’re going to have a great pregame crowd,” Curry said. “We’re late arrivers, and we’re not alone in that. Our folks like to tailgate. We do it pretty good. But I’m excited to see how many people are in the stands for pregame.”
The game changes will have a significant revenue impact on Florida State, but the school did have game insurance to help offset that cost, Curry said. He was expecting a $3.5 million net from the Jacksonville game with about 50,000 tickets sold. Ticket sales will be worth millions less in Tallahassee, and there are costs associated with the move as well.
Boise State still will get its contracted $400,000 for playing the game, Curry said. Florida State receives the same amount when it plays next year in Boise. Boise State doesn’t have an estimate yet for additional expenses created by the move.
“We’ve been working on that (Jacksonville) game for three years,” Curry said. “The folks in Jacksonville have been great. I know they’re as disappointed as we are. ... There is still a delta between what we were expecting in terms of net revenues and what the game insurance will cover.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2019 at 4:09 PM.
