Scholarship Football and a new stadium by 07

[Ruler]

Last night was a very informative meeting. Coach Brown, Patterson, Marr, and Ford got up and spoke about their seasons. Coach Brown is a super guy. He is the right guy for the job. Coach Ford is the Bobby Bowden of small school football. Marr is also a great catch...they should never let him go. Lax may be the bigtime program of them all. He envisions Albany beating teams like Hopkins, Syracuse, Maryland etc within the next 2-3 years...You know what...I believe him. He will get it done. The Lax and Baseball stadiums are done very soon. Lax new staduium will hold 6000 and BB will hold 3000

 

Dr. McElroy is a class gentleman all the way. He told me that he is very good friends with the AD from Delaware and they would not do a home and home because his alumni would kill him if Delaware came to Albany. Make no mistake Delaware will be an Albany rival in the next 5-6 years. They have a very serious fan base and our facilities would never hold all the fans that would travel!

 

Dr. McElroy is setting up long term contracts with Maine and Rhode Island as we speak for football. It will be CAA ot A-10 for Albany and SBU in the next 3 years. Would not give a time line as to when an announcement would be made. Football and Phase 2 are the most important thing on his agenda he told me. They expect the stadium to be completed by 07. They expect scholarship football before the stadium is completed which makes me think the stadium will be ready in 08. Everything will be done by 2010. Football is supposed to fully funded 08. Whicjh means they are going to be undermanned a little bit for the next 2-3 yeras. The President also is very football friendly. He brought Utah to the WAC from where they were in 17 months from the time they began the process. HE LOVES FOOTBALL!!!!! BTW the stadium with weight room and offices will hold 14,000 and will expand to 24,000 will be named the Albany bowl. It will be located where the practice fields are now. and it will cost a measly 42,000,000. Just thought you would want to know. The RACC will be renovated (I believe they put in a new floor) and connect to the stadium for only 18,000,000.

 

Finally, the rumors are true about the TE from UCONN and the QB from Temple. They are both in school and will be playing spring football. He is not sure how good the TE is going to be but the QB is fantastic....which is why Bocanegra finally decided to leave although he is still enrolled at UA. He probably will be at UA next season unless he leaves before spring football. We are set at QB for a while. They have a superstar rb that just committed from New Jersey and a transfer from New Hampshire at OT. He his very fast and very big....should be a starter by the end of spring football. 6'4" 285 and still has room to pack on 15 more. They are looking to be more balanced then last year and they expect a winning season despite the schedule.

 

If I can remeber more I will post!

 

P.S. Albany really dislikes Stony Brook and are very happy anytime we beat them which has been alot latley!

[Patch]

Ruler

 

Thanks for the update. I appreciate the information as well as the rest of the posters on this site do, I'm sure.

[AlbanyObserver]

Hopefully, those RACC renovations include adding full chairbacks on both sides. The endzones are fine the way they are because that is student seating.

 

We are trying to build a fan base, but really need to address that problem at some point. I find it nearly impossible to sit in the bleachers for a four-hour doubleheader. I guarantee if they added those chairbacks that those seats would be full every night. Plus, adding chairbacks gives you and recruits a feeling that the RACC is more of a state-of-the-art facility. A basketball arena, not a gymnasium.

[alumni '92']

Ruler, thanks for the info.

Hopefully, those RACC renovations include adding full chairbacks on both sides. - AlbanyObserver

couldn't agree more ... administration made a mistake at the time of RACC construction by not making the entire arena 'chairback' (blah, blah, blah about keeping costs down ... in the long run it costs us more) ... cost-benefit says spend the $ now to replace the bench seating ... jealous when i see what bing has gotten for themselves ... start a drive, i'm in for a few $

[reeder]

It will be CAA ot A-10 for Albany and SBU in the next 3 years. Would not give a time line as to when an announcement would be made.

 

Did McElroy actually say this or is it your interpretation?

 

thanks

[olddog71]

Interesting comment about Stony Brook.

[Ruler]

The words came out of his mouth in reference to scholarships and confrence affilliation.

[GreatDanes06]

Now the Lacrosse field will be finished before the starts of next season or the fall?

 

What are they doing to baseball and will the press box etc be ready for this year?

[GreatDanes06]

i didnt know that QB Daniel Bocanegra is transfering out. Do know the names of the NH OT, the Temple QB, the TE from UConn and the RB from NJ?

[alum73]

I saw the plans and unless they changed, the football stadium in going to be where the RAAC parking lot is. The new baseball field will be closer to the other facilities. More in the area of the last practice field and off the south end of the new lax field hockey fields.

[DaneFan2k3]

I too had seen plans with the stadium in the parking lot. Unless there has been a major shift for whatever reason .... it wouldn't really connect to the RACC from where the practice fields are now, and also it wouldn't be able to run North-South (vs. the current East-West) ... at least it wouldn't without removing the soccer fields, and they where would they play?

[DaneFan2k3]

I would like to talk more about the possibilities of joining the A10 or CAA. I will start a topic on that thread if you care to check it out.

[mainejeff]

I assume that you are talking A-10 or CAA for football, and not all sports?

 

By the way, do you know when Maine and Albany will start playing each other in football?

[WCDBvoiceofUA]

CAA doesn't have football. The schools that have football in the CAA are in A10. Im assuming the move would be like Northeastern's going A-10 for football and CAA for the rest of the sports.

[mainejeff]

It's still to be determined if it will be:

 

CAA Football

 

or A-10 Football

 

or 2 separate leagues.