Amid declining attendance, FSU to superimpose Tecmo Bowl Stadium over Doak Campbell

Faced with a visible decline in game day attendance, Florida State University officials have come up with an innovative plan to keep the seats full and spirits high.

Beginning with Saturday’s face-off against NC State, the sparse crowds at Doak Campbell Stadium will be digitally replaced with their 2D counterparts from the classic NES game Tecmo Bowl.

Director for Event Management and Operations Stuart Pearce explained their idea and the reasoning behind it:

“We had an optics issue every time a camera would pan towards the empty seats – it just looked awful on TV. There was a lot of back-and-forth over what to do about it. Buying out a $17 million contract was out of the question, so we made some phone calls.”

“The video overlay solution was a no-brainer once proposed. Our production teams are hard at work making sure almost everything you see on TV above the sidelines is replaced with Tecmo Stadium. It looks great! We get to solve a problem and make a real cultural statement as well.”

Concerns beyond broadcast optics were the focus of offensive coordinator Kendal Briles:

“There’s really two problems caused by low attendance. First you have the psychological impact on our players. Looking out and seeing an empty stadium doesn’t instill much confidence. We’re gonna strategically place some displays on the sides of the field so they can see those packed Tecmo stands.”

“Then for the general public it’s very monkey see, monkey do. When they see all those video-fans cheering and having fun they start to think ‘maybe I should buy season tickets.’” reasoned Briles.

Recent analyst hire and former Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt also expressed confidence in the plan:

“I’ll take ‘em, they’re loyal… a few might look like duplicates, but none of them leave after the first half. And they certainly don’t prop their damn kids on the lawn with some fakeass lemonade stand for media attention.”