The Florida State Board of Trustees meets Thursday and Friday in Tallahassee with three items on the agenda that will be of high interest to Seminole fans.

The first item is to seek board approval of a bond issue to replace the west sideline of Doak Campbell Stadium for an amount not to exceed $255 million bond. The second request is to seek approval for a technical amendment to a previously approved bond to fund the football operations building, not to exceed $116 million. And the third item is an athletics update from Athletic Director Michael Alford.

While that third agenda item doesn't offer specifics, one might presume Alford would provide an update on ACC expansion since the Aug. 2 BOT meeting. One would also expect him to address what the ACC's vote to add Stanford, University of California and Southern Methodist University might have on FSU.

A request will be made to the Board of Trustees to adopt a formal resolution(s) requesting the Board of Governors approval to issue debt to finance a portion of the Doak Campbell Stadium west sideline and south endzone improvement project.

The project will replace the west sideline of Doak Campbell Stadium. According to the BOT agenda, the scope includes removing approximately 27,000 seats and adding back more than 16,000 premium seats. Improvements include new club seats, a commissary and kitchen, suites, lounges and upgrades to antiquated infrastructure. The project will also result in a renovation of the south end zone of the stadium, which will include the addition of loge boxes and the installation of breathable mesh seats.”

“This meeting is to ask for approval to seek bonding for the project not to exceed $255 million for the west sideline construction,” said Seminole Booster Vice President Ben Zierden.

Here’s a couple of important items in the proposed project:

1. Project construction is expected to commence in November 2023 and is expected to be completed by September 2025.

2. Proceeds of the Bonds will not pay for all the costs of construction of the Project. As of Aug. 9, approximately $8 million in private capital gifts to the University and/or Seminole Boosters, Inc. (“Seminole Boosters”) have been received. FSU also projects receiving additional donations in Fiscal Years 2024-28 totaling $22.0 million, which are expected to be pledged to pay debt service on the bonds.

3. The project received legislative approval in the 2023-24 General Appropriations Act.

4. Proceeds of the bonds will not be used to finance operating expenses of the university or its athletics DSOs.

5. The BOT expresses its intention for the university to be reimbursed from proceeds of the tax-exempt financing for capital expenditures with the incurrence of debt, acquiring, constructing, equipping and installing the project.

6. The university expects to use legally available funds to pay such costs, including, but not limited to, capital expenditures, costs of design, engineering, retrofitting, and other costs associated with the incurrence of debt.

7. It is reasonably expected that the total amount of debt to be incurred will not exceed $255,000,000.

8. The BOT resolution constitutes a “declaration of official intent.”

9. The bonds will be secured by conference distribution revenue, recurring annual Seminole Booster membership fees, project-specific donations received within five years of issuance, sponsorships and advertising money, proceeds from ticket sales and game guarantees (collectively, “pledged revenues”).

10. The university is committed to ensuring that sufficient revenue will be generated to fulfill FSUAA’s debt service obligations with respect to the bonds.

11. The bonds will be sold through a competitive sale and will mature not more than 30 years after issuance, including any extensions or renewals thereof. The project has an estimated useful life of 80 years, which exceeds the anticipated final maturity of the bonds.

12. The bonds will bear interest at a fixed interest rate.

13. The bonds will have a first lien on the pledged revenues and will be senior in priority to any obligations created by that certain internal loan agreement between the university and the university’s athletics department dated March 31, 2016, including any amendments or modifications thereto.

This process began with conditional, initial approval from the BOT to begin selling the founders' boxes, loge suites and club seats. The BOT has used this “proof of concept” in years past to gauge demand for a project, and gain feedback from donors, before approval is granted.

Before the project reaches the BOT this weekend, it is going through a series of internal scrutiny.

The Seminole Boosters Executive Board, which is a subset of the full Seminole Booster Board, met Tuesday night to review the project and has recommended it to the full board, which met on Wednesday. Pending full board approval, it advances to the Florida State Athletics Association for review and approval on Thursday before reaching the BOT.

In addition to the quantitative analysis, members will typically ask about any feedback– both positive and negative -- and will be discussed before the project advances to the BOT.

Each of these groups will hear a positive report on sales of the eight mid-level founders’ suites and a couple of dozen loge boxes. The groups will also hear an update on ongoing sales of sideline club seats. Those sales reports are an indicator of proof of concept. It is common for members of these boards to ask for a projection of revenue on the next phase of sales, which will be for chairback seating above the club seating sections of the west sideline. While not club seats, these chair-back seats will be wider, with more legroom than currently exists and will be accessed by wider aisles with handrails.

While the club and loge seats will have access to luxury amenities, the chair back seats on the west sideline will include the fan-friendly amenities found in modern stadiums including spacious, well-lit concourses, lavatories, and a broader array of concessions.

In anticipation of approval, the Boosters prepared a bonding package for consideration by the Board of Governors in November should the BOT grant permission to move forward with the project.

Once the project receives BOT approval, Seminole Boosters and FSU Athletics will release a timeline for construction and its effect on the 2024 football seating chart.

Demolition of the stadium was expected to begin immediately after the last home game, set for Nov. 18, but cannot begin until bond financing is approved by the Board of Governors in November.

Zierden expects the project to start after the final home game as the remaining design can be funded with the project money raised through Seminole Booster capital campaigns.

Zierden also helped dispel reports that the project includes a partial roof to Doak Campbell Stadium.

“There is no roof structure as part of this project,” Zierden said. “Some of the feedback we have received has been about shade and those drawings came out of a CSL study we did in the spring of 2020 that was put in the project report only to show the feasibility of providing shade (in the future).”

The bond requests for the stadium project are in addition to a $116 million bond approved by the BOT this summer for FSU Athletics to move forward with the football operations building.

A first portion of the football operations project has begun as an annex to the Dunlap Indoor Practice facility, containing restrooms and storage, had to be relocated to make room for the operations building, which will be built on the parking lot between the practice fields and the elevated Stadium Drive.

The two bonds, one for the football ops building and the other for the stadium, are in addition to approximately $200 million of existing bonds on previously built athletics facilities.

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