Car crash cuts power at Doak Campbell Stadium

Florida State’s game against No. 19 SMU at Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday night started 1 hour and 45 minutes late after a power outage hit the stadium just before kickoff. Lights went out around 7:30 p.m. EDT, according to ESPN and the Associated Press, affecting the press box, sound systems and other game-day operations. A message shown on the stadium videoboard said technical staff were addressing a power disruption tied to the west side tower and an electrical short in the main transformer. The game eventually began at 9:15 p.m. EDT under partial power, with some stadium lights still not operating. ### Did a car crash cause the outage, or was it a transformer failure? ML Football said on X on September 7 that a car crashed into electrical equipment outside Doak Campbell Stadium, causing power issues before the game. That account helped drive the early social-media version of events. (wral.com) The reporting that was independently published by ESPN, the Associated Press, the Tallahassee Democrat and Florida State University’s student newspaper was narrower. Those accounts described a transformer problem, a power surge or a main-transformer electrical short, but the search results available did not provide an official public statement from Florida State, city utilities or law enforcement confirming a vehicle crash as the cause. (news4jax.com) ### What exactly stopped working inside the stadium? The Associated Press reported that not all stadium lights were operating when teams returned to the field and that the outage also knocked out coach-to-player communication, iPads on the sidelines, the public-address announcer and the scoreboard. ESPN separately reported that the game began with power restored only in limited capacity. (wral.com) The videoboard message inside the stadium said, “Technical staff are addressing a power disruption to the west side tower due to an electrical short in the main transformer.” That message was also quoted by AP and other local reports. ### How long was the game delayed? The original kickoff was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (wral.com) EDT on Monday, September 7, according to Florida State’s game listing and prior schedule announcements. Power went out just before that time, and the game did not start until 9:15 p.m. EDT. The Associated Press put the delay at about 1 hour, 45 minutes. (wral.com) News4Jax and other outlets reported the same revised start time after the outage. ### Who was involved in deciding whether to continue? ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was on the field during the delay and spoke with Florida State athletic director Michael Alford and SMU athletic director Damon Evans, according to the Associated Press. (seminoles.com) Administrators then moved inside to discuss options while both teams waited through the outage. (wral.com) Florida State and SMU had already come out of their tunnels before the delay became official. AP reported that players later returned to the locker rooms, while some specialists came back out to warm up. ### What can be verified now, and what still has not been confirmed? The clearest verified facts are that Doak Campbell Stadium lost power shortly before kickoff on September 7, that the outage affected major stadium systems, and that the game started at 9:15 p.m. after a lengthy delay. (wral.com) Those points are consistent across AP, ESPN and local coverage. The car-crash explanation remains less certain based on currently available public reporting. Social posts cited a vehicle hitting electrical equipment, but the official-sounding language visible from the stadium referred to a transformer short, and no law-enforcement or utility confirmation surfaced in the reporting reviewed here. That means the cause should be described cautiously until Florida State, Tallahassee utilities or police release a fuller account. (wral.com) ### Where would the next hard details likely come from? Florida State’s athletics site lists the September 7 SMU game at Doak Campbell Stadium, but the search results reviewed did not show a separate postmortem on the outage itself. The next verifiable details would most likely come from Florida State athletics, the City of Tallahassee utility system, or any police or fire incident report tied to the stadium area on September 7. (wral.com) (seminoles.com)