Florida State’s Board of Trustees approved a bond issue at Thursday's meeting of up to $116 million toward financing for the Dunlap Football Center Project.
Groundbreaking for the project took place in December 2022 and has often been referenced as the football only facility, a 150,000-square foot project that will attach to the exisiting indoor practice facility, replacing the adjoining parking lot and about 40 yards of one of FSU's two outdoor football practice fields. Due to soaring costs of construction and labor, the price tag for the 150,000 square-foot structure has escalated from prior estimates to $138 million.
The project includes everything needed by the football program and will free up 25,000 square feet of space within the Moore Center, that were once occupied by football, that can now be used by other sports. According to the document presented to the BOT, "When complete, the football complex will 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."
Coach Mike Norvell and athletics director Michael Alford have pushed forward in fundraising, which was bolstered by the Seminoles’ 10-3 record in 2022. FSU president Richard McCullough has also stated the football only facility was one of his top projects, along with the new business school under construction just south of the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The bond funding model is new
According to the notes provided to the BOT, the following specifics were presented about the bonding method:
An estimated $104 million in 20-year tax-exempt bonds will be issued at a fixed rate by FSU and the FSU Athletics Association (FSUAA), with $32.9 million raised in donations by FSU athletics and Seminole Boosters.
In years past, the bonds were issued through Seminole Boosters, Inc. The method of funding this project, and those in the future, will now go through the FSUAA, a direct support organization formulated in 2019 to tie the operations of athletics, Seminole Boosters and the university together.
According to documents presented to the Board of Trustees, "moving forward, FSU intends to increasingly integrate its athletics financials and utilize FSUAA as its primary financing platform. If approved, the Project would be the first debt issuance associated with FSUAA. Further, the authorization to refund existing FSUFA debt under the new FSUAA credit structure will enable the University to consolidate and streamline the structure of its athletics-related debt. FSUFA (the existing entity) currently has six different series of bonds outstanding totaling $122.4 million in par, the “FSUFA Bonds”, and it is expected to close its lien on the revenues pledged to secure those bonds.
The FSUAA Board is comprised of five voting members, including the Chair of the FSU Board of Trustees, FSU’s President, the Chair of Seminole Boosters, Inc. FSU’s Director of Athletics serves as FSUAA’s Chief Executive Officer.
TheOsceola.com will provide more insight into this new bonding development, which would be backed by the university, the structure of the existing and new bonds, which will now total $226 million ($122.4 existing and $104 new)
Project has begun
Some infrastructure parts of the project began in January, notably moving electrical lines as well as reworking water and sewer lines from the main campus to Doak Campbell Stadium. The project is set to begin in September and be complete by July 2025.
“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,” the notes to the BOT's finance and business committee said.
Among FSU’s rivals, Florida recently opened a football facility and the overwhelming majority of the ACC schools have a football-specific building.
As part of the football program’s move out of the Moore Athletic Center, approximately 25,000 square feet of space will be shifted toward other programs.
Osceola publisher Jerry Kutz contributed to this report
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