
“We’ve got to get caught up in that area.”
That was Jimbo Fisher amid one of his many mid-season, losing streak rants where he addressed everything except why his team was losing. His continual jabs and grievances about what he believed were FSU’s lacking facilities helped start rumors of him possibly flirting with other programs.
Jimbo wanted that football-only facility and he wanted it now. Many inside the fan base argued it wouldn’t happen.
Well, we know the story.
Jimbo leaves, in comes Willie Taggart, Athletic Director Stan Wilcox discusses changes and then, boom, the approval happens to go ahead with the construction of a football only facility. Planning and financial planning for a project of this scale doesn’t fall out of the sky in a matter of days, weeks or even months. This is years’ worth of planning and forecasting. It was being worked on while Jimbo was here. It just wasn’t happening soon enough. Not for him, anyway.
FSU isn’t Bama or, even Clemson for that matter, when it comes to freely spending money on the football program. FSU also finds itself becoming further removed from the national title and unlike the other mentioned programs.
But, just like the indoor practice facility, with time, FSU will come through.
The original plans were to renovate the current Moore Athletic Center or build around the indoor practice facility. The latter option was chosen with an estimated $65 million going into exterior and interior development of said football-only facility.
The building will be three stories with 135,000 square feet of space dedicated to running FSU like powerhouse program. It’ll cost more, but be a few thousand square feet smaller than Clemson’s. It will be state of the art with all the modern bells and whistles helping the Noles enhance recruiting through facilities.
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At first, I thought FSU’s new football facility would just be a 2019 version of the old F-350 – useable, not flashy. I was wrong. This is definitely Wraith, Maybach, or whatever cool exotic car you want to put in its place. At least it has the potential to become that.
From the plans I’ve seen, the players’ lounge/locker room concept comes fully equipped with space for a theatre room and I’m guessing they will have to have a barber shop. The training room and weight rooms are huge. I personally hope they get some cryotherapy chambers, sleep pods or other cool alternative treatment measures that a lot of pro athletes are turning to.
The facility will also feature a dining hall, meeting rooms, coaches rooms, administrative offices and the other spaces required to run a football program. Jimbo Fisher regularly complained about a lack of office space. Willie Taggart and his staff will have plenty.
You should expect to see areas specifically dedicated to recruiting and player development.
The football team will not be the only FSU sport to benefit from the new facility. With football and it’s 100 players along with dozens of coaches and staffers moving out of Moore, that building’s usage can be transformed. FSU’s incredibly successful Olympic sports programs, which become better and better all the time and just finished ninth in the all-sports trophy standings, best in the ACC and second best in school history, will be able to spread out.
Athletic academic services and student life functions will most likely remain there and grow. This new facility will help create a more efficient and athlete-centered experience for FSU’s players and coaches.
The facilities arms race isn’t new to college football, but it’s cycle has sped up and it’s becoming more expensive to keep pace every year. It’s cool to have these palaces, but in order to be able to keep up, first and foremost, you’ve got to simply WIN.
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Article Originally Appeared on Gridiron Now: http://gridironnow.com/fsu-latest-to-join-growing-national-trend-in-construction-of-football-only-facility/