Athletics director Randy Spetman has a busy plate with the
day-to-day operations at Florida State.
One project close to completion is the football
program’s indoor practice facility, scheduled to be completed by Aug. 1.
There are also ambitious visions of how to reshape Doak
Campbell Stadium and the Civic Center, and to prioritize the upgrades based on
the needs of fans and the dollars available. In an ideal world, Spetman says
that $200 million could be spent at Doak and another $100 million at the Civic
Center.
Neither amount is realistic, so administrators are
evaluating remodeling options and working with architectural firms to decide
how to best use their fund-raising dollars.
What improvements are you looking to make at Doak Campbell
Stadium?
Spetman: We hired a firm, HKS, to do a whole analysis with the
boosters. We have great concern – how do we take care of our fans through the
future? With the advent of HDTV, 3D TV and everything that’s going on and what
we’ve seen in the trend of people staying at home instead of coming, we know we
have to make this a stadium that excites people to come here besides the
tradition of college football.
It was almost a three-month study. They came up with several
different options. We met with them at least seven different times. We went
step by step through what we could do. We threw out a lot of ideas to them.
There’s a lot of neat things you can do if you have money.
The thing they were excited about is the exterior of the
stadium, all the buildings, are so magnificent and so well kept that we could
literally lift the bowl out of there and put a new bowl in, and it would just
be awesome. So we looked at concourses that were air-conditioned, more
concessions areas, places that people could go out if they got hot in the
stadium they could go cool off. It’s a pretty awesome idea. But it’s in excess
of $200 million.
You didn’t have to do it all. It was a menu. You could get
the price down. You have to look at phasing things. You couldn’t take the whole
bowl out in one year, and we have no place else to play football. They looked
at phasing.
What’s taken more roots is, and Andy Miller (of Seminole
Boosters, Inc.) has moved on with this, there is an idea that in the south end
zone under the University Center Club, that we put 1,500 club seats in there.
But those club seats would have the availability to go back in on the third
floor of the University Center Club, where the big ballroom is. And it would
have air conditioning and some amenities there. So if you were a club seat
member you could use that to come in and out. It’s taken on some good roots.
It’s $20 million. I think that’s what you will see in the next three years.
They’re still putting together the funding campaign. What
we’re looking at is before we start the construction, we would sell it all and
you would have to buy it for five years or 10 years. So that we actually have
the money and we wouldn’t have to bond (issue) very much. That’s what they’re
doing across the nation. In that club level, we could do some different types
of club seating.
What are the fans asking for?
Spetman: Our seats are too close together. We sit on top of each
other. We need to provide comfort there.
When you walk into Doak Campbell from the outside, you drive
up to this place and you’re going, ‘this is the neatest place in the world.’
And you walk through Gate B, and you walk under the erector set and it’s dark
and there’s beams everywhere, and you’re going, ‘What’s happening?’ and you
walk up the ramp and you walk out in the stadium, ‘This is the neatest thing in
the world again.’
What we need to do is when you go into Gate B, we capture
you in and you’re excited all the way through in and out. And we take care of
you and you have a place to get out of the heat. To get concessions, to get
good restrooms. We know that there are women that stay to the half and go home.
We have to take care of that. We want the younger generation to keep coming. We
recognize the problem, it’s just financial.
What coach Jimbo Fisher is doing, continuing to win, that
helps you in that fundraising arm.
Have you prioritized things?
Spetman: What we’ve prioritized is the south end zone. Is that the
kind of luxury that people want? Our priority is to get the south end zone so
that they can see what the potential is. And I think the south end zone will
generate such excitement that people will say, ‘You have to go forward.’
Have you seen an example of a stadium that shows you what
you’re looking at?
Spetman: When you work with an HKS or anyone, they bring you those
pictures. TCU is a great example. HKS built TCU, so they showed us. And we get
the luxury to travel to some of these places to see what’s there. We see what
we want, it’s just a matter of getting there.
What else are you looking to do at Doak?
Spetman: For Coach Fisher, our locker room is very nice, but it’s not
fresh. In the next year or year and a half, we need to freshen it up. New
graphics. Some of the woodwork is worn. The graphics these days, we have to
have it. And not just the locker room, in the coaching area. We have a nice
set-up but it’s plain. We need to do that for him.
He’s had an architectural firm come in and look at that. We
have a plan, it’s just a matter of the budget to make sure we can get there. I
think that will be done before the south end zone.
Realistically, how much money are you talking about raising
to make upgrades at Doak?
Spetman: I would say in the $25 million-$30 million range. It would
get us a good start. And that’s a lot of money. I think that’s what we would
look to as an initial start to go forward. Some people who continue to support
our program with some major gifts. I think that’s really where we have to go.
There were some large dollar figures being thrown around
with the Civic Center, too. What’s the plan there?
Spetman: The Civic Center also has phases -- $10 million, then $20
million, $40 million, $70 million and then $100 million. We can look at that.
The Civic Center is 30 or so years old and it hasn’t had anything done. We’ll
see some immediate brightening, new paint.
What we need to do is take care of the acoustics right away.
Your dilemma is, ‘Do you put new seats in right now?’ and if we did that, and
then we decided to pour the bowl (on one end or both ends of the arena), can
those seats be taken out and be put back down? I’m almost positive they can do
that. They’re bolted down.
I think you’ll see the seating in the next year or two
years. But it won’t be this summer – we would have had to start already.
Funding through bonds?
Spetman: They haven’t figured out who is going to manage it yet.
Whether it’s going to be the university, they’re looking to see about a company
managing it. The state just gave us $5 million, and I know the county doesn’t
want it, but if we are doing things for the city and county hopefully we can
get some help from them. I think we’ll have to bond for it.
President Barron has a concept for that whole area. They’re
talking maybe moving the College of Business there. They’re talking about a
hotel over there and expanding a convention center. He has a great vision about
how to turn that into the entrance to the university. That would be like our
welcome center in the Civic Center. We could have a shop in there where you
could buy Florida State gear. He has his staff working on that.
It’s a huge number. I think you’re in the $40 million - $50
million range. I think it could be over a decade. Unless you had someone that
dropped this major gift on us. We have people within our alumni group that
could do that. We are aging as a university, but we could get there. It would
be exciting.
How is the indoor practice facility construction going?
Spetman: It’s on schedule. Childress and his subcontractors, they’ve
worked seven days a week since the first day of December. They plan to be done
on Aug. 1.
They told me they are going to start laying the outdoor
fields. They have a little bit to go. They’re putting in the final sprinkler
systems, they need to get it in before the first of June so that we have enough
growth time on it with roots before we practice on it.
The inside is really neat. It has a mud, clay floor. But
it’s really impressive. When you go in, it’s just massive. It fits in nicely
with the rest of the campus. It’s a very attractive building.
