Albany City facilities

[UAalum72]

Letter to the Sports Editor in today's T-U by Common Council member Michael O'Brien includes:

 

"Albany School District's "Outdoor Athletic Facilities Master Plan" ... proposes over $10 million of "soft cost" expenses for new outdoor athletic facilities.

 

A component of that proposal is a new 4,000-seat synthetic turf football field with lights, restrooms, concession buildings, security fencing, and paved areas at a cost of $2.6 million. The school district's plan also calls for a 500-seat baseball stadium at a cost of $640,000. Already both Saint Rose and the University at Albany have expressed interest in leasing time at some of these new facilities "

 

I don't know where these facilities will be, at Albany High or the new middle school, either of which would make it even harder to get students to the game, and the FB stadium is too small even at our current state for Homecoming and other big games, but the BB stadium is interesting, as is the cost of both fields.

 

O'Brien thinks UA and St. Rose should cooperate in renovating Bleecker instead, but I don't see any value to UA at all in that plan.

[reeder]

I think it would be a good idea for UA to work with the city to build new facilities at UA and share those with the city. Not sure how HS football works in Albany but where I live, HS football is played on Friday nights and JV and 9th grade games are played on the fields on Saturday mornings.

 

They can do the same thing with baseball. I saw on ESPN that UVM shares their baseball stadium with a minor league team.

[UAalum72]

I think it would be a good idea for UA to work with the city to build new facilities at UA and share those with the city.  Not sure how HS football works in Albany but where I live, HS football is played on Friday nights and JV and 9th grade games are played on the fields on Saturday mornings.

 

They can do the same thing with baseball.  I saw on ESPN that UVM shares their baseball stadium with a minor league team.

9257[/snapback]

HS football is almost evenly divided between Friday and Saturday, though more schools have added lights recently for Friday games. CBA has its own field now, but an Albany city field is shared by Albany, Bishop Maginn, and maybe Albany Academy? A lot of competition for prime times.

 

Cooperation with the city is fine, but what does the city bring if the field is on the UA campus? The dollars they're talking about is a pretty small portion of the projected cost, and the mayor may not have much political influence with a new governor next year. Also, I think the stadium on the UA campus is on the Guilderland side of the line - who knows what that will do with local jealousies.