danefan

Good question. The one thing I've seen other top qualtiy T&F facilities do is put "lane guards" up on the inside 3 lanes. Those lanes get the brunt of the use and wear down the quickest (as evidenced by our old track which literally had no rubber left in lane 1). The guards are swinging railes that swing out over the inside 3 lanes.

The one thing that our new facility won't have that a lot of the other top tier T&F facilities in NY do is a jumptron. Middletown high school has as huge jumbotron that is linked with the built-in track timing system. The runner carry chips in their shoes which automatically record unofficial times and immediately post on the results board on the jumotron. Pretty cool as a spectator.

The NYSPHSAA prefers championships rotating between sections as there are very nice HS ones out there: C/N-S, Rochester area, Middletown, Kingston, Vestal. Albany may get a year every so often. People rag on UB Stadium as a football venue with the track, for good reason. But as a T&F facility it's considered world class: facilites for every event possible including steeplechase pits, advanced timing and scoring systems, and locker rooms for hundreds of athletes. It was built for the World University games, hosted the 1998 D-1 Men's and Women's Outdoor Championships, several Empire State Games and MAC Outdoor Championships. Despite its quality, we last hosted the high school state championships in 2008. The one thing Albany has over just about every other location that has hosted the track championships is a central location. Buffalo is a very very long ride for the kids from the eastern sections. I wouldn't be surprised to see it rotated in and out of Albany every other year or every three.

I'm about to post something very harsh, because it needs to be said. Baseball and Men's track and field fans should be very happy we still have those sports. They are the first to get cut in favor of increasing spending on revenue sports which need a Title IX balance. Towson just cut baseball. James Madison cut T&F a few years ago, shortly after building a new track.

Track and field is never going to bring national recognition to UAlbany outside the relatively small T&F community. Americans care about the traditional "Athletics" one week every four years during the olympics and only rarely is the undergraduate institution of Team USA members mentioned. I love track and field. I've competed at the highest levels in high school and have watched my immediate family win NCAA event championship and compete at Olympic trials. UA shouldn't spend another dime on track facilities once this is done. Not until we have a 15000 stadium, renovated bball arena and full turf field house (which could easily house an indoor track as well).

This is bound to happen. I've seen it at other places. There will be 10x the number of new fans that come out to support the athletic department because of an increased committment to football than the number of fans that walk away because they feel their non-revenue sport has been slighted. Its just reality. Football and basketball are king in college athletics.

BTW - I think they could do some really good things to SEFCU that wouldn't necessarily qualify as a renovation. Video board, chairback, etc... isn't really a renovation.

My order of preference: 1. Finish the lower bowl at Bob Ford Field - this assumes they put really cheap temp visitors bleachers in now. If they go all out on the visitors side now, I could see waiting a little bit longer. 2. Field house/indoor practice facility - all of our sports need this. The bubble is outdated and basically a waste of space. 3. Renovate SEFCU 4. Athletic Admin Facility in the End Zone of Bob Ford Field Fallon Field is done to me. The bathrooms and concessions can be shared with Bob Ford Field if need be and lets be honest - if there is a big lacrosse game, it should be played at BFF anyway. Baseball facility is horrendous, but that's live in the Northeast unless a donor wants to step up.

Yes.

On a different note - the frames for the press box windows look almost done. That might mean windows which would probably then mean the upper deck shortly thereafter.

No seating other than the Phys Ed is my understanding. The grass berm will be absolutely perfect for track meets. In fact, for high school meets its a great place for teams to place their tents, blankets, etc... The NYS Championship might warrant some temporary bleachers, but by and large high and college track is not a spectator sport in the US (outside Eugene Oregon, the major relays (Penn, Drake) and national championships..)

MY bag. I guess you are right. The angle of the web cam makes it difficult to get a real perspective. Readers please ignore post #732. Definitely an illusion, but I couldn't get a good angle for a pic. But for the distance from the sideline, it still looks a long way They were also adding a black border around the numbers. Was at the T&F ceremony today, the old track has already been removed. Vives said we already have a commitment for the 2015 NY State T&F High School championships. 72, nice photo and great investigative reporting. I was was really hoping/thought they would have done something creative to make the "all purpose" stadium a little more football fan friendly. I am obviously wrong. I wonder how many soccer fans are willing to lay down $1000+ for a seat. I wonder if the soccer alumni and fans (if there are any) donate to the same extent Bob Ford's players and fans do. May be we should exchange our season tickets for track, at least they have a dedicated stadium (AND MORE THAN WELL DESERVED). I understand the concept of making the stadium all purpose [state finding and renting it out to section V soccer etc.], but it still is the football supporters, promoters and fans who ultimately pay for the place. Anyhow, thanks for the photo and keeping us informed on the stadium's progress. Well, it could be argued that a real home field advantage would be putting the visitors stands as close to the bench as possible and then selling those tickets to UAlbany fans. That's exactly what Montana did. But then again - they sell out both sides so there really isn't a home side.

As ive said all along...it should be used for everything, but that hurts the experience for football fans. I'm not saying its not a good trade off.

I'll never watch a soccer match there so I'm selfish. I could do without the extra 15 feet.

Bob Ford Classic. Afterall - without Fordie, neither team would be what it is today.

http://www.goseawolves.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/050813aaa.html

Definitely staying there. The Siena logo that's going in the South end zone will be there too.

That just means the SBU has decided to allocate $6m more to the athletic department than Albany does. That is what I mean by a greater insitutional committment to athletics. Also, remember - operating budgets are different than Capital funding. Moving $6m to athletics means taking it from somewhere else. Imagine the political repercussions of that. Maybe Dr. Jones would like to do that for us too? Who knows.

I would be shocked if that were the case. The 50 yard line appears on the webcam to split Section 105 right down the middle.

Not sure how much it really matters, but Davidson is officially going to the A10. The one interesting thing is that the A10 now has 6FCS football playing schools in 4 different conferences. Amazing. Dayton - Pioneer Duquesne - NEC Fordham - Patriot League Rhode Island - CAA Richmond - CAA Davidson - Pioneer

Agreed. Adding full scholarship football and a stadium will bring that number up, but I suspect we'll still be multiple millions of dollars below Stony Brook, Delaware, James Madison, etc... It all comes down to what the University wants. We all know what the Athletic Department wants, but like most Athletic Departments, it is dependent on University Subsidies. Our subsidy is is almost 80%. What will President Jones and the Board of Trustees decide to do?

Here's an interesting chart which may give you an idea of the leap we'd need to take to make the financial committment needed, IMO, to compete year in and year out in the CAA. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/ I don't see it happening personally, although you can see why all of us would probably support the move if it was accompanied by an institutional committment to increase investment in the athletic department.

Sorry - terrible math. My example was intended to show $1m spread out of a bunch of fans. $1000 by 1000 fans. I just can't do math.

I think it might be an optical illusion because of the webcam but I might be wrong. Also, I'm thinking the mounds of sand they dumped on the visitors side is going to be spread into the turf itself. The only reason I think that is because its covered with a tarp and held down by the orange weight bags they used to hold the turf down. Makes me think the turf company is using the sand. They used to fill these fields with ground up tires, but I know in recent years they've realized there were issues with using old tires in the fields. Plus, as a former player, the little black pellets were the worse. You ate more of them then were on the field it seemed.

There are a lot of large donors. IMO, the key is 100 people willing to give $1000 and attend games, etc. that is more important than the 1 guy that gives $1m. Those 100 may given $1000 a year or every 5. That $1m is a one-timer in all liklihoood. BTW, let's not forget we did get large donors when they finally came out publicly about the stadium. There was a $1m anonymous gift to name it Bob Ford Field.