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Note: This is the third installment of a three-part series on Florida State's consideration of building a football operations center.
Part 1: Making the case: 10 key reasons why a new football facility is needed
Part 2: Programs large and small pouring millions into football-only facilities
There is no consensus yet for how to make it happen, but Florida State administrators appear intent on satisfying head coach Jimbo Fisher’s desire to have a standalone football operations center.
FSU President John Thrasher told Warchant in February that he hoped to have such a facility in place by the time he leaves office, and athletics director Stan Wilcox said he also believes it’s a priority for the department.
The big questions remaining for the Seminoles are where to put it, how much it will cost and how it will be funded.
“One side would say let’s build a whole brand-new football operations facility,” Thrasher told Warchant previously. “Then there’s the other side that would say maybe we could use the Moore Center and maybe add on to it in certain ways that would maybe free up space and really advantage both our football operations as well as our so-called Olympic sports. So we’re looking at all of that.”
In the first part of our series on this project, we looked at 10 primary reasons why the Seminoles feel they need the facility. In part two, we examined similar projects at schools around the ACC, SEC and beyond. In today’s final installment, we look at where the facility might go -- the pros and cons of retrofitting the Moore Center -- and other challenges FSU must overcome to make it a reality.
Fisher confirmed to Warchant recently that the university already has architects working on the possibilities. When that study is complete, FSU officials will be presented with several scenarios, each coming with a different price tag as well as varying sets of pros and cons.
As best we can tell right now, there are two primary options:
* Renovate and expand the Moore Athletic Center for football and build a facility for other sports programs in another location;
* Or build a brand-new Football Operations Center next to the Indoor Practice Facility and outdoor practice fields.