Clark: FSU exploring options to fill premium seats during basketball games

But there's an issue that has been raised repeatedly on message boards, on social media and, more importantly, to the decision-makers at Florida State University: What is with the all the empty seats in the lower bowl of the arena? The ones that are so distinctly visible on television? Even during sell-outs?

It's an odd look from an optics standpoint. But it's also a cause of real frustration for fans.

If you want to buy a single-game ticket through the university, your only real option is to either sit in the upper bowl or behind one of the baskets. Meanwhile, scores of season-ticket holders -- who have the best seats in the house -- are often staying home.

"We're looking at how other schools are moving those tickets and encouraging those season-ticket holders," said Vanessa Fuchs, FSU's senior associate athletics director with oversight of basketball. "Especially the ones in between the baskets, the prime seating. We're looking at what other schools are doing.

"We're looking at different options to incentivize fans to be here. And if they can't be here, how they can redistribute their tickets so someone is using those seats?"

As it is, season ticket-holders have the option to sell them on StubHub. They have the option to give them back to the school. They have the option to give them to friends. They have the option to, you know, actually show up and cheer on one of the best teams in school history.

But some of them choose, "None of the above."

The result is what you see in that picture above. And what everyone else sees on television anytime FSU plays a home game.

If you listen to fans and media gripe about the situation, you'll hear are a lot of theories as to why this is occurring. That the basketball season tickets are just given as an afterthought to football-loving fans. That most of the people who buy these tickets -- the prime ones, as Fuchs called them -- live hours away and can only make it to a few games a year.

Here's the reality: Jack Chatham, Florida State's director of ticket operations, said their research shows that nearly 85 percent of season ticket-holders for basketball live within a 30-mile radius of the Tucker Center.

And anyone with season tickets had to actually decide to purchase them after making their annual donation to Seminole Boosters. They aren't given away as some sort of stocking-stuffer because you bought a bunch of football tickets or made a large contribution.