Seminoles’ season opener is sold out
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic announced tickets to Florida State’s season opener against Alabama on Sept. 2 at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta are officially sold out.
The sellout was expected, especially considering the anticipation surrounding the matchup between two teams expected to be ranked in the top 10 in national preseason polls.
This is the ninth time in 12 years the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game has sold out. The game averages 67,645 fans, but the new stadium can hold up to 75,000 fans. With an average payout of $4.7 million, it’s higher than 27 bowl games last year.
Tickets for the game are still available on the secondary market if fans are willing to pay. The cheapest ticket on StubHub Friday was $459, with the highest around $3,500 per ticket for a spot in the Mezzanine Club.
This is the fifth meeting between these two programs going back to 1965, with the Seminoles winning the most recent meeting 21-14 in 2007. However, FSU coach Jimbo Fisher has never defeated his former boss, Alabama coach Nick Saban. will celebrate a win.
Last season UF and LSU leaders got into a heated exchange when the Gators declared they could not host the Tigers due to a hurricane expected to hit the Gainesville area. The storm didn’t deliver a direct hit and LSU officials were outraged the game was not played as scheduled.
After tense negotiations and no shortage of disparaging remarks lobbed at UF by LSU, the Gators agreed to play the makeup game at the Tigers’ Death Valley instead of the Swamp as originally scheduled.
Florida exceeded expectations, clinching its second consecutive SEC East Division title by knocking off the Tigers.
The University of Florida’s athletic department generated more than $140 million in revenue in 2015-16, placing it among the top Division I public schools, according to USA Today’s annual database of college financial information released Thursday.
USA Today uses the latest financial information gathered from each school for its database.
Florida ranked eighth in the country in total revenue ($141,441,109). The Gators were one of six schools from the Southeastern Conference to finish among the top 10. The SEC also featured the overall leader: Texas A&M.
Florida State was the top ACC school, ranked 18th overall, after generating $113.8 million in total revenue.
Miami, a private school exempt from public information requests, was not included in the database.
The remaining Football Bowl Subdivision schools in the state of Florida were among the top 100: No. 53. UCF ($59,379,453) No. 60. USF ($47,160,819) No. 86 FAU ($32,141,210) No. 98 FIU ($29,370,443) Texas A&M set the bar high after claiming $194,388,450 in total revenue, followed by Texas ($187,981,158), Ohio State ($170,789,765), Alabama ($164,009,745) and Michigan ($163,850,616).
According to the latest numbers, Florida declared $121,307,116 in total expenses for 2015-16. Part of those expenses included coaching and staff salaries ($50,799,898) and facilities and overhead ($21,183,212). Those numbers also include $2,431,579 that the athletic department transferred back to the school in 2015-16.
For the second consecutive year, FSU spent more than $100 million in total expenses: $115,631,800. Much of that went to coaching salaries $41,430,333 and scholarships $10,145,242.
UCF saw a nearly $8 million increase in revenue from 2014-15 to 2015-16, but on the flip side the Knights also saw a nearly $12 million increase in expenses: $59,379,453. More than $26 million of the revenue was considered allocated and consists of student fees, direct and indirect institutional support and state money allocated to the athletics department.