Emmets rudeness to fans is legendary in Pensacola. I have several friends who have had issues with him and it got to the point that at a Roy Jones fight when he was introduced the entire crowd unanimously booed him and he closed his memorabilia shop the next week. It’s quite possible that his relationship with Florida may not have been the best previously.
UF makes most of it's ticket revenue from season ticket sales. Season tickets START AT $390 (not including contribution) and in 2022 the school sold 63,000 season tickets before the season started.. Just for the argument, let's use that $390 number. That means the average ticket is $56 and UF makes about $3.5 million per game in ticket sales. As part of a season ticket package, it really doesn't matter who we play. UF gets that revenue even if the seat is empty on game day. Resale is a completely different issue. UF doesn't make any additional money on resold tickets. And of course the amount of money made on gameday on parking and concessions isn't included. But the point is that in terms of season ticket revenues, which are in hand before the season starts, it really doesn't matter that much who's on the schedule. UF makes the same amount of season ticket revenue on the 7th game whether it's Ohio State or Northwest Central Idaho State. The options are to take that $3.5 million for the cupcake home game or give up the 7th home game and play on the road. Which is a better business decision?
I totally agree on this. I prefer to have 1 tune up game first and then a respectable second tier second game. There was really no value to playing EWU in the 5th game last season.
The people knocking the early cupcake fail to recall that we almost always sputter a little out of the gate. Last season’s opener was the exception not the rule
And it gives the 4-5 kids who start out the season with a suspension to be back in time for real football. "Preseason games" is what SOS called them. I always loved that.
Look at the face value on your season tickets, if they were all premium games, your season tickets would go up considerably.
Knowing it’s a cupcake can be a problem too. We had a new team and coach and knew Utah was no cupcake.