Best UAlbany Team Gets No Recognition!

[Jhow257415]

LOL, No way man! Any comparison but Siena!!!!! The new track will have a legitimate bid at hosting big meets because this is such a centralized area. The closest facility on the same scale is UB, so that will bring lots of teams here. To be more specific we will be able to host IC4A's which consist of over 200 D1 schools and over 700 athletes, we will likely be the host of America East year after year! We could even be home to the NCAA East Regional Championship, they've had this at George Mason, UF (which our facility has been heavily influenced by) and at Yale this year. I promise you this facility will be better venues for that meet by far. Although because of our climate it is unlikely to have it here...but the point is there is a possibility.

[purest_sport]

Hello my friends...

 

This is a forum to discuss track and field..Who decided to go off course and argue about facilities...

 

An all purpose track and field stadium as well as having an indoor facility will allow for the following:

 

1. Ability to host major invitationals/championships and open meets open to the community. The third has been happening for two years now and attracts nealry 200 athletes each meet. (not bad for novices)!

 

2. Ability to host regional High school and NYS Championships. (sites change nearly every year)

 

3. No more interference of basketball bleachers being out getting in the way of our workouts and the team having to use the "blessed bubble"!!!

 

4. True "track and field fans/athletes" will come to pay homeage to the facilities.

 

5. Hey even, summer meets, Junior Olympics and Regional Championships can be hosted..as have been in the 80' and 90's at the current track facility....

 

all in all, some great things are in store..I don't know about 10,000 seats being necessary for the stadium. let's work on just getting a mere 1000 attendees at t a track meet and go from there

[Patch]

This is a forum to discuss track and field..Who decided to go off course and argue about facilities... - purest_sport

 

purest_sport

 

On a forum like this it isnot unusual for one topic to lead into the discussion of another topic. Just be happy people are discussing UA Athletics.

 

The best thing to do to get back to a strict track conversation and start a new topic in the track area of choice (fall XC, Wnter Track or Spring Track).

 

Dane Pound if you read this maybe you could consolidate the tracks into one area.

[DaneMan]

Not to come off as a prick, but an indoor track facility would be a huge waste of money. Some of the top track schools in the country don't have their own indoor facility so unless this going going to be a combination facility, i.e. indoor football field, etc. Albany should use the money elsewhere.

 

2. While the IC4As are a big deal now. For Albany to be a track powerhouse, the IC4As should be viewed as a meet used to qualify for the NCAAs. Also its time for us to start running against the big schools in these meets, not against the smaller schools so our results look more impressive.

 

3. A school with no swim team is going to have two on-campus pools? Why not use some money to fully fund the teams that don't have money. It would be better spent sending teams on their trips rather than having the teams fundraise on their own.

[GreatDanes06]

as a member of WCDB, i really want to get a press box in before i graduate next year. I love to broadcast a game before i leave the university.

[DaneMan]

Press boxes may be in place this year.

Edited February 8, 2005 by DaneMan

[Jhow257415]

IC4A's has always been a "big deal," its one of the more historical meets hosted on an annual basis, it has been run more times that PENN RELAYS! Every meet that the team attends is used as a stepping stone to NCAA's that is our ultimate goal, so singling out IC's means nothing.

 

"For Albany to be a track powerhouse, the IC4As should be viewed as a meet used to qualify for the NCAAs. Also its time for us to start running against the big schools in these meets, not against the smaller schools so our results look more impressive."

 

Are you kidding me have you seen any track results, we run against Texas, LSU, Seton Hall UConn, Arkansas, Miami, and huge track schools on a weekly basis. Go to Armory track.com and checked the results, we role with the top dogs. Check out results of the Texas Relays, Penn Relays, or NCAA's. You name them and we have competed with them, and there is never a blow out!!!

[Iknowtrackstats101]

Dane Man,

 

Name one major school without an indoor facility?

By major, I mean any school with a student count of over 15000.

[DaneMan]

Tennessee. Their indoor facility is a joke. No one of prominence has run there. They just use it for crappy meets.

 

I don't even think the team practices in there.

 

They also share the facility with the volleyball and basketball teams.

Edited February 8, 2005 by DaneMan

[Dane96]

Sacremento State....or even better...UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL.

 

Edited February 8, 2005 by Dane96

[DaneMan]

Also add Puke and Maryland to that list.

[DaneFan2k3]

North Carolina has a track, they host the ACC Championships this year (the only reason I know they have one is that I saw it on the ACC site when researching this).

 

However, it's an indoor football facility/indoor track according to their official web site.

 

Just like DaneMan said, you have to multi-task.

 

If UAlbany built an indoor track, you can be for damn sure it would have to include some sort of student recreation and/or artificial turf field in the middle for teams to practice on (football, lacrosse, field hockey, etc.).

 

Other major schools without indoor tracks (according to their web sites) include:

 

Florida State, indoor men's ACC champ last year

TCU, the National indoor runners-up in 2001

 

For that matter, I went to their league's site, the Conference USA web site, and their championship has been held at University of Houston or a high school somewhere every single year of the league's existence. So you can presume that no schools have indoor tracks except Houston.

 

Even Stanford, the richest of the rich and a national contender in indoor track (runners up 1998-2000), doesn't have an indoor facility.

 

The Pac-10 doesn't even stage an indoor championship.

 

Those are all major schools with 5 times the financial backing of UAlbany, and a major D-IA football program.

[DaneFan2k3]

The other thing I don't feel bad in bringing up is the question of the final price tag for this "10 to 15 year" project.

 

By the time some of these projects are completed, the cost is going to soar. I know that inflation is routinely factored in to long-range projects, but it's hard to forsee delays, re-designs, construction problems, funding problems, etc.

 

I could easily see a few of the aforementioned pieces of the plan not going into place at all, or being scaled back to the bare minimum.

 

There is no telling what the state and its construction fund will look like in the years 2015 to 2020.

[UAalum72]

When the campaign for Albany began (almost 2 years ago?) athletics had a separate luncheon where they outlined the state of the department. Among the list of projects provided to NY state was 'an eight-lane competition track with stadium seating for 2,500'. This was before Sasaki's master plan, but it shows what track's wish list was at the time.

 

During the football season I was at a presentation of the master plan. Yes, there's supposed to be a banked, indoor track (the only one in upstate NY) in a recreation building between Dutch quad and the current football field.

 

I don't remember anyone mentioning a second pool, but there could be one just for student recreation, not necessarily competition.

 

Any parking facility will probably be near the podium where it's in use every day. The Harriman campus might be used for athletics parking; it already has acres of lots which are empty all weekend and weeknights.

 

The baseball field will be moved west, away from the pond.

 

I don't think there were any changes for softball except for better stands.

 

This spring's construction is field hockey and lax fields with a common grandstand/storage structure. There was no mention of men- or women- only usage.

 

This thread is why I wish the university would actually publish something to give a reality check on the speculations, as long as they can give some idea of a timetable. In answer to a question, Pres. Hall wrote me that ' I expect athletics master plan to move forward, providing that our fund-raising efforts are successful. As President, I certainly intend to make those efforts successful.'

[DaneSteepler]

Without getting too DEEP into this discussion, I'd like to simply add one or two things.

 

On the debate/topic about BIG Universities (ie. Stanford) that don't have an INDOOR track...well my reply to that is simply: Have you seen their version of "WINTER"?

 

Also TCU, Tenn. and I can't remember the other schools that were mentioned don't exactly have THE harshes WINTERS out there. Those points are a big consideration that should be taken into acount when throwing out big time univ's w/out an indoor track or even a decent one.

 

I'm in no way taking a side on the current issue, just thought it SHOULD be known that some of the aformentioned school's idea of WINTER = 55-65 degree weather, therefor making it pretty easy to be outdoors year around.

 

Now with that said, let the debates continue....!