UPDATE: FSU gets go-ahead for partial financing of $138 million football operations center

As expected, the Florida State Board of Trustees signed off Thursday afternoon on the request to seek more than $100 million in financing for the school’s new standalone football facility.

The next step will be getting approval from the state Board of Governors. And if that goes through as expected, FSU will move forward with construction in September.

The 150,000 square-foot facility is expected to be complete by the summer of 2025.

Read more about this project and the funding below:

EARLIER REPORT

As Florida State’s administration prepares to ask the university’s Board of Trustees to move forward today with financing of its long-planned Dunlap Football Center, more details of the project have been revealed.

The total cost of the project is now expected to be $138 million, it will feature approximately 150,000 square-feet of space, and it is now expected to be completed by July 2025.

Those details, along with more precise funding information, were included in documents provided this week to the Board of Trustees, as they prepare to formally request that the state Board of Governors approve issuing debt for the facility. The Trustees have a regularly scheduled meeting later this afternoon.

According to the documents, FSU already had received $28.6 million in donations for the project as of February of this year, and that total is expected to be $32.9 million by the end of this month. That means the Seminoles will need an estimated $104.5 million in bonds, which will be paid over 20 years at a fixed interest rate of approximately 5.5 percent, according to the materials.

“FSU anticipates receiving additional donations in Fiscal Years 2024 through 2028, totaling $22.1 million which is expected to be pledged to pay debt service on the Bonds,” the documents state. “Finally, FSU expects to receive $5.8 million in Project donations in Fiscal Years 2029 through 2032. These donations will be available to pay debt service on the Bonds but will not secure the debt.”

Florida State broke ground on the facility in December and has already started some pre-construction infrastructure work related to water and electrical supplies. The actual facility construction is expected to begin in about three months.

Approximately $114 million of the project expense will go toward construction costs, with about $24 million going toward “soft costs,” such as engineering, permitting, etc.

In a memo to the Board of Trustees from Kyle Clark, FSU’s senior vice president for finance and administration, the debt service will not exceed $116 million.

Florida State has been working toward the goal of building a standalone football operations center since early 2017, but the project has hit a long line of snags — from changes in coaching staffs and top administrators to fundraising challenges related to struggles on the field.

According to athletics director Michael Alford and other FSU leaders, the proposed facility has become a necessity as other schools in the ACC and across the country have invested heavily in state-of-the-art facilities.

Their studies show that the average amount of space devoted to football among the ACC’s 14 full-time members is 67,000 square feet. Three schools devote over 100,000 square feet to football, while Florida State ranks ninth in the conference at 41,000, according to the documents.

Perfect Father’s Day Gift! Huge Discount on 6-month, 1-year Warchant Subscription

(Additional directions on giving subscription as a gift)

Here is more information on the project from the request being put before the FSU Board of Trustees later today:

“FSU proposes to construct an approximately 150,000 gross square foot football operations facility on its main campus. When completed, the Project will serve as the new day-to-day home of FSU football operations. The Project is expected to include offices for coaches and staff, a locker room, meeting rooms, strength training and conditioning space, nutrition stations, recovery and rehabilitation resources, video production space, and a recruiting suite. Project construction is expected to commence in September 2023 and is expected to be completed in July 2025. …

“A recent study showed that FSU ranked 9th out of the 14 schools in its conference in facility area dedicated to football-specific use, with FSU football occupying approximately 26,000 less square footage than the conference average. Further, many of FSU football’s regional competitors have extensively renovated, constructed, or announced the coming construction of state-of-the-art, dedicated football operations facilities, including University of Florida, Clemson University, University of Miami, Auburn University, and University of Georgia. …

“FSU football’s transition out of the Moore Athletic Center will make available at least 25,000 square feet of space for other FSU athletic programs to utilize for their operations. Groundbreaking and initial site preparation work commenced in December 2022. Construction is expected to begin in September 2023 and be completed by July 2025. …

“The Debt will be secured by certain gross revenue streams contractually pledged to FSUAA by FSU’s athletics department and Seminole Boosters, Inc. The pledged revenue streams include athletic conference distribution revenue, recurring annual Seminole Booster membership fees, Project-specific donations received within 5 years of issuance, sponsorships and advertising money, proceeds from ticket sales in excess of $8.85 million, and game guarantees (collectively, the “Pledged Revenues”).”

The FSU Board of Trustees is meeting virtually this afternoon from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Stay connected with Warchant.com for more on this story.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.