Official news on Stadium & Track

[danefan]

Thanks for the update. They clearly have a plan. I don't understand why they're still sitting on it.

 

The shortsighted planning still amazes me. Stage 1 of the stadium is already done. Unfortuantely the AD thought it was a good idea to only use it 10% of the year. We should be talking about expanding the multi-purpose facility used for lacrosse, soccer and football to seat 10,000. Instead the sport with the #1 attendance is playing in the worst facility we have.

[Dane96]

Agree wholeheartedly with that post.

[UAalum72]

I just checked the Fallon Field thread. We learned about Fallon's donation in May 2004 and the project still needed SUNY Central approval. Construction of two playing surfaces began in early July 2005 and field hockey began play by mid-October.

 

Temporary bleachers can go up in a week. If the shovels hit the ground in April 2011 we'd have a usable field down to kick off that season.

[dslyank]

GDG just got back from "A Conversation with George Philip" at Jack's and Philip mentioned a few things on the stadium....

 

He was asked.. are we getting a new stadium? He said something like ...If you mean stadium by our $50M request, No. What we are looking to do is incremental projects in 3 phases. First phase is a turf field North to South. They want to take a modular approach and building it up and adding seats in the 2nd and 3rd phases. But no details on size or time frame was talked about.

 

But then he kept saying something about the Giants wanting to use the lacrosse field.. so GDG isn't sure if he meant it to be directly related to the football phases or what. Maybe someone else who was there can clarify that whole thing. In regards to the lacrosse field there's the requirement that it can only be used for lacrosse but Philip said thats being worked on..and the Giants want to see if they can use it, but they would need to add lines but you have issues of shadowing of lines, which is unacceptable to the University explained Philip.

 

Track field... seemed like it was a high priority he's working on it to make it happen so that there can be home meets.

 

I was also at the conversation. MsG. has it pretty much as it was. The whole thing like usual was pretty vague. Philip's said "no announcements--no specifics." He did say UA could not pay and will not pay to have the Giants in Albany. It appears to me the only one who is really pressing for the Giants return is Jerry Jennings (who was there last night for only 30 minutes or so). Maybe the city of Albany will pay for the turf field, but I doubt it.

 

Philip's did seem adamant about not lining Fallon field and I hope he sticks to his guns; and we at least get a new turf field elswehere which we can phase into a "stadium".

[Clickclack]

Thanks for the update. They clearly have a plan. I don't understand why they're still sitting on it.

 

The shortsighted planning still amazes me. Stage 1 of the stadium is already done. Unfortuantely the AD thought it was a good idea to only use it 10% of the year. We should be talking about expanding the multi-purpose facility used for lacrosse, soccer and football to seat 10,000. Instead the sport with the #1 attendance is playing in the worst facility we have.

 

All of this is incredibly frustrating...TIME FOR A CHANGE AT THE VERY TOP OF THE ATHLETIC DEPT.

[Patch]

For some reason I thought there was an agreement that in return for the donation for the Lacrosse field that it could not be used for Football. Am I wrong in this assumption?

[danefan]

For some reason I thought there was an agreement that in return for the donation for the Lacrosse field that it could not be used for Football. Am I wrong in this assumption?

 

You are right. And allowing that to happen was a terrible decision.

[MRSGDG]

For some reason I thought there was an agreement that in return for the donation for the Lacrosse field that it could not be used for Football. Am I wrong in this assumption?

 

You are right. And allowing that to happen was a terrible decision.

 

Acting as a devil's advocate.....If the University was offered money from a donor for a football field, but it could only be used for football would that be a terrible decision to accept the money?

[danefan]

For some reason I thought there was an agreement that in return for the donation for the Lacrosse field that it could not be used for Football. Am I wrong in this assumption?

 

You are right. And allowing that to happen was a terrible decision.

 

Acting as a devil's advocate.....If the University was offered money from a donor for a football field, but it could only be used for football would that be a terrible decision to accept the money?

 

 

 

It depends on the size of the donation IMO. I get what your saying. It is a tough thing to turn away any money. And of course hindsight is 20/20.

 

I'm willing to bet that the donation to the lacrosse field didn't even pay for 25% of the turf field let alone anything else associated with it. Its great that a guy wants to give $250,000. But what that donation did was essentially hold the athletic department hostage. They're hands are tied behind their backs with regard to the best use of that field.

 

If one guy comes in and pays for a large majority of the funding then its a different story IMO.

 

Plus how much political capital was used up to get the remaining $5 or so million used to finish it?

 

It all goes back to my feelings that there should have never been a single-use facility on a campus or a program like UA. Especially for a non-revenue sport that does not have any particular equipment needs.

[danefan]

A little more fuel to my fire.

 

http://www.oursports...ses/?id=3998877

 

Major League Lacrosse, the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, announced today that the Chicago Machine will face the Long Island Lizards at John Fallon Field on the campus of the University at Albany on Saturday, June 12, according to Commissioner David Gross.

 

This game should be scheduled for a multi-purpose stadium.

[dslyank]

Danefan while respecting your opinion, I have to disagree with your assessment of Fallon field. I think one of the reasons we were able to get this major league game is because we have a unique Lacrosse only stadium. Fallon field being lacrosse only is a major recruiting tool for Scot Marrr and his staff, and is one of the reasons we have had a very successful program (past couple of years have been tough--but believe it or not things are looking up--great class coming in 2010 & 2011).

 

I have been one of the biggest advocates for a new stadium; but not at the expense of Fallon field. Do not touch it, do NOT put football lines or players on it. I for one would rather have the Giants take a hike (they do very little for UA anyhow), then mess-up Fallon field for them, As for Ford and his team, they deserve much more anyhow--a stadium of their own.

[danefan]

Danefan while respecting your opinion, I have to disagree with your assessment of Fallon field. I think one of the reasons we were able to get this major league game is because we have a unique Lacrosse only stadium. Fallon field being lacrosse only is a major recruiting tool for Scot Marrr and his staff, and is one of the reasons we have had a very successful program (past couple of years have been tough--but believe it or not things are looking up--great class coming in 2010 & 2011).

 

I have been one of the biggest advocates for a new stadium; but not at the expense of Fallon field. Do not touch it, do NOT put football lines or players on it. I for one would rather have the Giants take a hike (they do very little for UA anyhow), then mess-up Fallon field for them, As for Ford and his team, they deserve much more anyhow--a stadium of their own.

 

Are we just ignoring Stony Brook? SBU Lax recruiting seems to be doing just fine. They have a major lacrosse event (NCAA Quarterfinals) there, the attendance to which will likely be at least triple the MLL game at UA. Not to mention their football program is now at least 4-5 years ahead of ours.

 

There is nothing to indicate that the UA lacrosse program wouldn't be in the exact same position if they played in a multi-purpose stadium. In fact, SBU's success seems to indicate that we'd be in a better position.

 

Additionally, I think it was shortsighted to think that our lacrosse program only needs a stadium the size of JFF. Mark my words. As soon as the football stadium is built, the first non-football team looking to play a game there will be lacrosse. And then we'll have a $5 million lacrosse field sitting idle.

[UAalum72]

I doubt it. Only Hopkins, Syracuse, and maybe a couple of ACC teams average as much as 5,000 for lax regular season games. Seats on the east side of Fallon (I'm thinking modular units that could turn around for field hockey in the fall) would be more than enough unless we're hosting quarter-finals.

 

Stony Brook's attendance in their 8,800-seat stadium, this year's average - 904. Albany - 1167

[danefan]

I doubt it. Only Hopkins, Syracuse, and maybe a couple of ACC teams average as much as 5,000 for lax regular season games. Seats on the east side of Fallon (I'm thinking modular units that could turn around for field hockey in the fall) would be more than enough unless we're hosting quarter-finals.

 

Stony Brook's attendance in their 8,800-seat stadium, this year's average - 904. Albany - 1167

I'm specifically thinking about NCAA games and 10+ years down the road. JFF is too small to host Quarterfinals and if Lax explodes like most think it will, JFF will be too small for that too. I'm 100% confident Lax will be playing all of its big games in the football stadium when its built.

[uofalbany]

You can't blame John Fallon for putting the condition on his donation. Afterall, who ever donates significant chunks of money to UAlbany athletics? Nobody. You can't blame the university for accepting the donation or the condition that came along with it.

 

If John Fallon agreed to remove the condition, would anyone want jff to be our multi purpose facility?

With the largest expansion possible, to what maximum could we increase capacity?

 

With the renovated track and field facility (current ford field), the lacrosse facility, AND a multi-purpose stadium, we WOULD look very attractive to recruits & general students (on the athletic side of things). How attractive do we look now?

 

I would argue that sbu's stadium is a HUGE selling point, and is a HUGE reason why they have surpassed us in lax, among other sports. Who's not impressed by a new, 10k seat facility? Or one larger for that matter? Although jff holds 2500 or so, and is nice, it's not all that impressive. If that's the only selling point to our recruits for all sports, we may be bypassed.

 

Although we haven't seen much over the D1 decade in terms of facility upgrade, imo - the best option has always been a brand new facility. At this point, I don't have confidence that the current leaders have the ability to get anything done in terms of facility upgrades. I need to be proven wrong now.

 

Any thoughts on how the stadium is going to progress over the next 3 years? (based on recent talk)