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Florida State Contemplating Roof For Doak Campbell

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By SCOTT CARTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 2, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - As Florida State officials explore providing an indoor practice facility for the football team, one of the latest ideas is building a roof over Doak Campbell Stadium.

FSU coach Bobby Bowden has lobbied in recent years for an indoor facility to allow the team to hold regular practices in inclement weather. Last fall, the Noles were forced inside Doak Campbell Stadium's turf room at least half a dozen times due to lightning, limiting what they could do.

FSU's campus offers few practical options for a major construction project near the 82,300-seat football stadium.

Building a roof over Doak Campbell Stadium could be the solution.

"In our case, if you handed us 20 million bucks, where do we put the thing?" FSU president T.K. Wetherell said. "We're sitting here on a campus of 400 acres, and then to take out something the size of a football field, where do you do that? Maybe we ought to cover the stadium.

"Maybe a better solution is Texas Stadium with a hole in the middle, or a big canvas over it, something like Florida's Stephen O'Connell Center used to have. Maybe that's a better deal, and better for our fans when we play early games in September and early October when it's so hot. So, we're looking at a variety of deals."

As part of FSU's plan, Bowden and offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher - Bowden's eventual successor - will use Bowden's spring speaking tour around the state to raise money for the project, expected to cost at least $20 million. Wetherell, who spearheaded the expansion of Doak Campbell in the early 1990s during his stint as Florida's Speaker of the House, said raising money for the project is the first order of business.

"Jimbo is a great offensive coordinator; now he is going to learn how to be a head coach and say, 'I need some help, and all you people who tell me how much you love me, send me a check.' That's part of the game," Wetherell said. "He's going to learn from the best."

SPETMAN INTERVIEWS: Utah State athletic director Randy Spetman interviewed Friday to become FSU's next athletic director, the final of four candidates to meet with the school's 24-member search committee.

Spetman, a 28-year Air Force veteran and former AD at the Air Force Academy, was recommended to Wetherell by NCAA hiring consultant Chuck Neinas. He is considered the leading candidate among a quartet that also includes Wayne Hogan, Martin Mayhew and Don Smiley. Spetman interviewed in 2004 to become South Florida's AD, a job that eventually went to Doug Woolard.

"I actually thought I had the job, to find out that I did not get it," Spetman said Friday. "One of the concerns from the donor base down there was that I was too recently out of the Air Force, and that I would run it like a military organization."

Reporter Scott Carter can be

reached at (850) 294-3088

or scarter@tampatrib.com.

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