Florida State to open $60 million football-only complex in 2021

Florida State will be the newest school to embrace the football-only facility craze.

The Seminoles announced Sunday evening that they will pursue a $60 million, 122,000-square-foot football-only complex. That building is the centerpiece of the Unconquered Campaign launched by the Seminole Boosters and FSU, with the goal of raising $100 million to support athletics.

"It's difficult to overstate this building's importance to the present and future of Florida State football," FSU coach Willie Taggart said in a statement.  "It will allow us to be more efficient with our limited time together as a team and help our student-athletes manage their time better by bringing everything they need from a football perspective into one location.  The new building will also open up space for every other sport in the Moore Athletic Center.

"I appreciate the groundwork that has been laid by our administration and the Seminole Boosters, and I can't wait to see our supporters Do Something to make a defining investment in assuring our program has the resources to remain among the finest in the nation."

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The new football operations building will be adjacent to the Albert J. Dunlap Athletic Training Complex and practice fields. Among its features: a new team locker room, training and hydrotherapy areas, a weight room connected to the indoor field, meeting rooms and a recruiting lounge. The athletic department and boosters' fundraising will pay for the building.

It is scheduled to open in July 2021.

A similar $65 million project is in the works at rival Florida, and a $40 million facility is a major priority for USF. Since 2013, at least 17 Power Five programs have built or renovated facilities like the one FSU is building, at a combined cost of more than $800 million.

A football-only facility was one of the biggest goals for coach Jimbo Fisher during the end of his tenure, and the Seminoles' lack of progress there was one reason his relationship with the school soured.

Taggart had such a complex at Oregon and said it helped his program there.

"Just really efficient," Taggart said this spring. "For me, the coaches, the players — the student-athletes – get to train in the best. That's what they all want. I think we all want that for the student-athletes — for them to train (in) the best."

By moving football to its own building, the Moore Athletic Center will have more room for other sports. The Seminoles plan to renovate the weight room, expand the dining room, update the training room and include more than 15,000 extra square feet for academics.

Other parts of the fundraising campaign include upgrades to baseball's Dick Howser Stadium and the second phase of renovations to the Tucker Center for the basketball program.