FSU fans must be ready to hit road, spend money
Tallahassee is a long trip for supporters, and hotels and gas drive up the cost.

Steve Elling and Tania Deluzuriaga
Sentinel Staff Writers

TALLAHASSEE -- When it comes to supporting Florida State, there are two things fans need: a good set of tires with a thick tread or a comparably fat wallet. Better still, both.

Fans packed the house on Labor Day to watch Florida State's season opener against Miami. For most, the logistics involved in attending any FSU home game qualify as a true labor of love.
Unlike earlier stops for games at South Carolina and Florida, Florida State is both geographically isolated and prohibitively expensive onfootball weekends. On the final leg of this 10-day college football road trip, we weren't the only ones who drove 1,200 miles and spent thousands of dollars to attend the game. - College Football -

Gas prices are sky high, area hotels boost prices and the campus is located 160 miles from the nearest major city, Jacksonville. If you want to attend an FSUfootball game, you're going to pay the price. Emphasis on pay.

"Are you gonna be tough, or are you going to be tough?" said Dwight Howard, who drove 21/2 hours home to Niceville after the game, which ended around midnight.

Given the popularity of the program, tens of thousands of fans were making similar jaunts for every home game. Some have to get creative when it comes to financing such ventures.

Mark Clark, 27, from Athens, Ga., and his best friend, Jeremy Cathem, 30, from Loganville, Ga., make the six-hour trek to every FSU home game. Clark, a student at the University of Georgia scalps his student tickets at two or three times their face value to help pay for his trips to Florida State, while Cathem padded his student loan to help cover his expenses.

"It was only $3.99 for 18-packs of Miller Lite so I'll save some money that way," Clark said.

By land or by air, the FSU devotees are paying a steeper price than ever. Russ Plumb, a Miami fan who lives in the Dallas area, spent about $600 on hotel and airfare to watch the game along with a couple of buddies. - College Football -

"Plus beer," he said. "Put a big question mark on the cost for that."

Since the game was on Monday night, the three-day weekend still wasn't long enough for many fans, who had to ditch work today while traveling home.

And if a cursory glance around one of the Doak Campbell Stadium parking lots is any indication, they travel from far and wide.

License plates from six states were seen in a span of 30 minutes, including the North Carolina tags of former FSU tight end Ryan Sprague. A starter on the 1999 national championship team, Sprague drove 71/2 hours to the opener with two infant children in tow. - College Football -

Now 27, he appreciates what fans went through for all those years watching him play.

"I remember them talking about that when I was here," he said. "There are no major towns, no airports, only one interstate."

Seeing as the highway in question, Interstate 10, is closed in three neighboring states, getting to the game was an even bigger challenge for some. What should have been a seven-hour drive for Tom Berniard turned into a 14-hour grind, including a 11/2-hour wait for gas in his hometown of Lafayette, La. - College Football -

"We had a real guilty feeling with all that's going on in New Orleans," said Berniard, whose son Geoff is on the team. "But we figured family is more important."

Once fans finally arrived in Tallahassee, the price tag keeps on climbing. As they have for years, many hotels require a two-night stay duringfootball weekends, frequently doubling or tripling the usual nightly rate.

"That should come under the state's price-gouging law," Howard said.

Demand clearly exceeded supply over the weekend because numerous hurricane evacuees had relocated to the area last week. - College Football -

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