Welcome to on the bench. I am Brendan Sonone has promised yesterday. We have a special guest on today's OTV. It is the CEO of some of the boosters Michael Alfred Michael. Welcome to on the bench yet again, sir. How are you doing?

I'm doing excellent brother. How are you doing today? I am doing very well. I'm excited for a for a little FSU Miami action this weekend looking forward to that. And I'm sure you are too. This is going to be your first your first home game with Miami at dope, right?

You know, you know, you go back and haven't been in a son of a father was a college coach and just kind of growing up in this business, right? You go back to the great games and you grew up on them. I remember in college of working it out with coach Polk at Mississippi State that a coach practice needs to be done. Our fall ball practice needs to be done by 230 because we're in Mississippi 230. So when catch the 330 Florida State Miami game. It is back to our apartments.

Back in the 90s, you know, my favorite, my favorite play of all time that is just ingrained in my head is Mike Friars. Matt Friars catch on the sideline against Miami and taking it to the house and to see his speed being a receiver.

Seeing his speed break away on that catch, you know, it's just just great moments. And I can't wait to see a dope Campbell Stadium brought to life with the Canes in town.

What has it been like for you this year and last year was so weird for so many reasons, but the pandemic to see dope having, you know, have a crowd with people and join themselves getting to campus and kind of be able to show the things that you guys are doing as boosters to elevate the experience. What's that been like so far this season for you?

It's been great. You know, it's been great. Just walk in the concourse talking to our fans, getting feedback, sharing with them what we're bringing in the future, some of our visionary elements that are going to help their game experience and improve what we're trying to do and improve their experience for because it's a commitment when they come to town.

As you know, you've heard me talk about this before, wore a $100 million revenue driver to Leon County, Leon County and Tallahassee community and 60% of our fan base travels over three hours to get here on a Saturday.

So that is a monetary commitment and time commitment. So it's on us to make sure that we're doing our part and making sure that game experience and fan experience is top notch and accustomed to and worth their travels.

It's something where we're really working on and proud that we've got some great partners who are helping us.

Since you arrived here, I believe it was last July. So it's been about a year to half. There's been a lot of initiatives that you've taken and we've seen a lot of great numbers in terms of a growth of booster contributions.

Just collectively, Michael, I'm maybe tough to pinpoint it to one thing. What are you most pleased with right now of the state of of some of the boosters and I guess something that's grown or changed during your time here?

Well, that a doubt is the response we have received to joining the annual fund. We're not there yet, but the annual drive is part of our long term plan to increase our investment and athletics program because it all goes to support our student athletes.

It supports their academic, their athletic, their life goals of 500 plus student athletes and a lot of people don't realize we're still sustaining athletic department.

I mean, it cost us about $60,000 per year per scholarship athlete that we've paid to the university.

So without that core group of donors, none of that is possible. And so every, something I talk about, I was speaking and engagement down south and temporary another day to a group and I reminded them that every time a student athlete graduates, they should fill a little part of that because we are providing those resources every time.

Coach Coriann wins an ACC championship at soccer. They should have some pride, of course, in that, but understand that their monetary commitment and assistance allowed us to provide the resources for that championship to occur.

So behind every one of those achievements accomplishments, there is a group of donors being self-sustaining. So I just want to thank everyone who is a member of Seminole Boosters for allowing us to make a difference in these two athletes' lives.

To give you a little summary of last year, we got up to 12,000 donors where we were just at 9,000 when I got here in the first year. So we added the great group of donors to over 2,000 new donors, really proud of 850 plus upgraded their giving from the previous year.

So we reached our revenue goal. And by reaching our revenue goal, it allows us wonderfully fond of scholarships that allow us to renovate the more center weight room on the equipment weights, flooring, which impacts every single team that we have.

Due to some donor support, Bruce and Anne Harrow, we were at the football hype tunnel. We're in CD phase at the football facility. We brought in legends to enhance our student athlete dining, which is very important, that we're trying to do and set us ourselves apart.

Right now is the science of the nutrition elements for our student athletes. So there's a lot going on. We just had a campaign and did soccer and softball video boards will be going in for the student athlete experience in the fan experience in August.

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