https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/taggart-comments-about-the-facilities.214760/
I recently did a one-on-one interview with him for the Unconquered magazine's upcoming issue about his desire to have the former players back for the spring game and about the football operations needs.
He absolutely thinks FSU needs to upgrade what we have as does the athletic director and the Boosters. There's never been any debate about the needs, which I'll get into in a minute, the only question has been what's the most efficient way to satisfy the needs.
Stan Wilcox put out an RFP in the summer to do a study of needs and optimum designs. The contract was awarded to Populous, a leading designer, who was about to finish the study when Jimbo left and Willie stepped in.
The Boosters, meanwhile, had already begun to raise money for the building and had secured the first leadership gift before Jimbo left and before Populous had anything to show the donor.
Populous had to "reboot" the study once Taggart took over as his priorities are somewhat different than Taggart's.
FSU's facility needs, according to Fisher and Taggart -- and the administration agrees with -- are:
1. Too many entities using Building D of the University Center Complex which creates daily distractions for coaches and players. The entities include football, the athletic department, Seminole Productions, about 500 college of communications students who attend class in the building and from time to time each of about 380 student athletes in the other 19 sports. Plus a constant stream of curious people taking tours of the building.
2. Football wants a dedicated weight room. While it has priority for the existing room, other sports can schedule time in the space, which reduces flexibility in scheduling for everyone.
3. Ditto for the training room. While football has priority, 18 other men's and women's teams will use the training room throughout the for doctor's appointments and rehabilitation.
4. Ditto for the dining room. Football can schedule a football-only dinner but the rest of the day they share the space with all the other sports, communications students and faculty and staff like me so it gets really crowded about lunch time.
The existing building is about 200,000 square feet and football occupies about 100,000 of it. The new football-only facilities other schools have built are about 130,000 to 140,000 square feet. While FSU's spaces are currently smaller 130,000 versus 100,000, the size is not the primary concern. The primary concern is the distractions of trying to get work done with so many people -- with diverse needs -- calling the building home.
The study is to see what the optimum building would be. And the questions come down to these:
1. With 200,000 feet of space in the building, could FSU move some of the entities -- the college of communications or the other sports for instance -- to an alternate building to free up additional space for football within the existing footprint overlooking Doak and Bobby Bowden field (beachfront view)?
2. What's the cost in terms of money?
3. What's the cost in terms of disruption to all those people working there now as it will likely take 2 years to complete?
4. What's the cost to build it so its connected to the IPF? Is there room?
Populous had done most of this work already and is now rebooting based on recent interviews with Taggart.
We should have some plans to look at soon and comparable costs. While this has been going on, Seminole Boosters have signed another 5 or 6 leadership gifts and will sign some more once we have a direction agreed to and some perspectives to show donors.
We don't know what the cost of the building will be until its designed but we've heard prices ranging from $35 to $85 million.
Taggart told me he isn't looking for something like Oregon has -- which he says is like walking into Facebook's world headquarters -- he just wants something that's functional. He verified with me that its important to plan for the future but schools in Florida -- FSU, UF and UM -- don't need slides and putt putt courses, or Taj Mahals to lure kids to campus. FSU, UF and UM are surrounded by players who want to come here already because of proximity, tradition, success. Schools up north need these facilities more than we do to lure kids out of Florida.
His idea of what we need is in line with our ideas so that's great.
I would expect we'll know where the facility will be located and what it will cost by summer. The timeline for when it will be built will depend on how fast we can raise money for it and/or find creative sources of other income as all athletic facilities must be built with private contributions and university or state tax payer dollars.
email me if you have questions at jkutz@fsu.edu
Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690
18 Jerry Kutz, Yesterday at 10:04 PM
Let me see if I can be clear here. There really wasn't any dispute about the needs between Fisher, athletic director and Boosters.
We all agreed on the needs. I think what concerned Jimbo more than anything was how long it was going to take to get it done, which is still a concern.
Jimbo is a football coach and like most football coaches, who live by a clock, wanted it right now and the unfortunate reality is you can't build it without the money to build it or a new revenue source in order to borrow the money to build it.
Historic note: we've built something over $400 million in athletic facilities since the 1990s -- much of it with borrowed money -- so most all of our sources of revenue (tickets, concessions, etc.) are already pledged against that debt.
Since a building like this -- which will cost $35 to $80 million to build, generates NO NEW REVENUE you can't borrow the money to build it until we create a NEW stream of revenue to pledge against the bond or build it with cash raised from private contributions, or a combination of both.
We faced the same challenge a few years ago when we were told we had to make structural improvements to Doak at a cost of $25 million in order to open for the 2016 season.
We had to create a NEW source of revenue in order to borrow the $25 million needed.
The Champions Club seat sales became the new source of revenue and funded the bond issue to pay for those $25 million in repairs to Doak and to build the club.
In order to build the football opps center, we are raising leadership gifts (so far $6 million pledged over a five year payment schedule) and looking to create other annual revenues to pledge toward the bond payment to build it.
For example: As club seat sales increase we generate additional revenue -- in excess of what is already committed to the Doak bond payment -- that we could pledge towards the Opps center. We project the new ACC network deal will generate additional annual revenue which could also fund a bond payment. And we are looking at other imaginative means to get it done sooner.
I think the imagination starts with design; finding the optimum concept for football that can be funded in a timely manner.
Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690
25 Jerry Kutz, Today at 11:11 AM
Boosters TRANSFER about $20 million to athletics which is part of the athletic budget, not in addition to the athletics budget.
FSU does have money but let me be clear, money is relative.
Texas A&M's budget of $190 million is $30 million more than Texas who is like No. 2 in revenue and more 50 percent more than FSU's.
FSU has won three national championships so we are getting more done than those schools with more money but we also have incurred more debt. In addition to the money Boosters transfers to athletics (your booster contributions and proceeds from other ventures), we also pay about $10 million each year on bonds to build the facilities our teams currently enjoy.
We get stuff done by being creative, not because we have money sitting in a reserve we can write checks from. And creativity takes more time than writing a check.
Need is also relative. We have gotten more done with less partly because of financial creativity but mainly because we are in the state of Florida and don't need to build a slide or a putt putt course to keep good kids home. Florida is loaded. We may lose some to those schools who have the glittery buildings but Willie Taggart knows there's plenty more kids out there who, like him, have grown up Seminoles.
We don't need to buy a pork chop to wear around our neck just to attract recruits o play with us but we do need to be sure our facilities operate efficiently and give players what they need to graduate and stay healthy.
So its relative.
Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690
35 Jerry Kutz, Today at 1:38 PM
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