Baseball Stadium

[danes05]

Has there been any talk of building a baseball stadium for the Danes? The current facility seems very poor to me. I think a good idea would be to put a new stadium into Harriman Park as part of its redevelopment and find a high level (AA or AAA) minor league team to play there. Anyone have any ideas or heard any rumors? I can't really think of anywhere else on campus that a stadium could be built.

[B9j2j6s]

Its part of the 2010 master plan, it is either phase three, four or five. I do recall that phase one was the lacross and field hockey fields and phase two is the football stadium.

[UAalum72]

I mean, what's wrong with the current field, other than no seating, no parking, no toilets, and ground level lower than the pond?

 

We'll have an idea when they announce the football field, or add the Project 2010 links to the web site. According to the orginal plan, if football was built on the current SEFCU lot, the soccer field would move east to the first practice field, and baseball would move west to the second and third practice fields. But if football is put somewhere else, it all could change.

 

The latest word (of several plans in the last 4 years) on the Harriman campus was building more space for the nanotech enterprises; sports facilities don't seem to fit with putting that space onto the city tax rolls.

[Dane314]

Rumor has it that a 3500 seat stadium is in the plans to be built on campus. It would be located next to the current field.

[danefan]

3500 seats for baseball? A little overzealous no?

 

Just kidding guys.........But I bet the ASP will run some stupid editorial about it next week.

[WCDBvoiceofUA]

3500 is way overzealous...I love UA sports but come on, Big East schools don't even have 3,500 seat stadiums. Somewhere in the range of 1,500 would be plenty with a press box and restrooms. That would be plenty sufficient. Remember due to the long winter that stadium won't even be usable until April anyways. Frankly, until the UA baseball does the things the Softball and LAX teams have done I think I would rather have the seats there.

 

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

[Dane96]

3500 is way overzealous...I love UA sports but come on, Big East schools don't even have 3,500 seat stadiums. Somewhere in the range of 1,500 would be plenty with a press box and restrooms. That would be plenty sufficient. Remember due to the long winter that stadium won't even be usable until April anyways. Frankly, until the UA baseball does the things the Softball and LAX teams have done I think I would rather have the seats there.

 

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

 

 

Not overzealous. This is not for Albany...but for other events. Most new college stadiums are being built for expansion. Most schools are building 5-7000 seat stadiums down south.

 

3500 up north is about right. We will not get a new baseball facility for 30-40 years after this is built. With UA expected to be at 20,000 students by 2010-12, this is the right size. The school will most likely (bank on us getting more of the Harriman Campus) be at 25-28k students in 25 years. Add in the local support that is growing...and 3500 is the right number.

 

Plus, we want to host regionals.

[danes05]

3500 is way overzealous...I love UA sports but come on, Big East schools don't even have 3,500 seat stadiums. Somewhere in the range of 1,500 would be plenty with a press box and restrooms. That would be plenty sufficient. Remember due to the long winter that stadium won't even be usable until April anyways. Frankly, until the UA baseball does the things the Softball and LAX teams have done I think I would rather have the seats there.

 

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

 

 

Not overzealous. This is not for Albany...but for other events. Most new college stadiums are being built for expansion. Most schools are building 5-7000 seat stadiums down south.

 

3500 up north is about right. We will not get a new baseball facility for 30-40 years after this is built. With UA expected to be at 20,000 students by 2010-12, this is the right size. The school will most likely (bank on us getting more of the Harriman Campus) be at 25-28k students in 25 years. Add in the local support that is growing...and 3500 is the right number.

 

Plus, we want to host regionals.

 

I think we should build the best facilities we can. I'd like some of us to lose the mindset that we should only do things small. Make UA sports facilities a destination for both prospective student athletes and the general public. The more people the better.

[UAalum72]

I wonder if you could put 250 to 500-seat sections of bleachers on flatbeds, use them for soccer and field hockey in the fall, then tow them around as overflow sections for lacrosse, baseball, and softball in the spring. Then you could have smaller permanent facilities but wouldn't need rentals for the occasional NCAA event.

 

Moving baseball and soccer right next to lax and FH would let you have permanent toilets and concessions convenient to all four fields.

 

And as long as we're thinking outside the box, you could get a lot more use out of the baseball field with FieldTurf (at least for the infield).

[Dane96]

I wonder if you could put 250 to 500-seat sections of bleachers on flatbeds, use them for soccer and field hockey in the fall, then tow them around as overflow sections for lacrosse, baseball, and softball in the spring. Then you could have smaller permanent facilities but wouldn't need rentals for the occasional NCAA event.

 

Moving baseball and soccer right next to lax and FH would let you have permanent toilets and concessions convenient to all four fields.

 

And as long as we're thinking outside the box, you could get a lot more use out of the baseball field with FieldTurf (at least for the infield).

 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

I had the sad experience on playing the half-grass/half-turf fields. While they are better made these days, TURF for baseball, any type, is a travesty. UMIAMI started the trend...and it sucked playing on that field. Tropicana Field looks awful...and feels awful.

 

GRASS, GRASS, GRASS, GRASS. We are not going to start the season sooner if they put in sprint or field turf. The machines used to groom/clean those fields cannot remove snow properly...and I believe other vehicles ruin the rubber below.

 

My high school field was turf (the last old turf before the first attempt at sprint turf). It creates all kinds of issues (wierd second bounces, injuries, etc).

 

Let's keep baseball pristine!

[UAalum72]

I'd agree with grass if we played fall baseball, but as long as the NCAA starts its season in February, and that's the same time as lacrosse season, which has the same snow removal issues...

 

Well, if they put the most modern, sand-based, drainage-pumped grass system, it might help.

[ATL_DANE]

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

 

Are you kidding me? Don't tell me the BCS schools are bringing in idiots... or even allude to it. Duke, Stanford, GT, Virginia etc. have great student athletes. If you don't want a baseball stadium just say so. Don't make these BS statements that you can't back up. Top athletics programs mean good athletics. It's not a knock on academics. One doesn’t mean the lack of the other. When UA is no longer a Tier 3 school THEN we can make arrogant statements like that… but not until then. We're a flagship school, let’s act like it. I wish we were a Virginia, GT, Florida, UGA. Look at their academic, athletic and NCAA stats before making these glib comments. DIII and mid-majors are just as likely to have academic issues.

[danes05]

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

 

Are you kidding me? Don't tell me the BCS schools are bringing in idiots... or even allude to it. Duke, Stanford, GT, Virginia etc. have great student athletes. If you don't want a baseball stadium just say so. Don't make these BS statements that you can't back up. Top athletics programs mean good athletics. It's not a knock on academics. One doesn’t mean the lack of the other. When UA is no longer a Tier 3 school THEN we can make arrogant statements like that… but not until then. We're a flagship school, let’s act like it. I wish we were a Virginia, GT, Florida, UGA. Look at their academic, athletic and NCAA stats before making these glib comments. DIII and mid-majors are just as likely to have academic issues.

 

Totally agree

[sarge965]

I love all of the expansion of the sports at UA but I like the fact we are Mid-Major, the fact that our athletes really are students give them that down to earth quality that I can appriciate in a sport fan. I will rue the day when Albany begins to offer golf and basket weaving. Lets look inward on who we really are.

 

Are you kidding me? Don't tell me the BCS schools are bringing in idiots... or even allude to it. Duke, Stanford, GT, Virginia etc. have great student athletes. If you don't want a baseball stadium just say so. Don't make these BS statements that you can't back up. Top athletics programs mean good athletics. It's not a knock on academics. One doesn’t mean the lack of the other. When UA is no longer a Tier 3 school THEN we can make arrogant statements like that… but not until then. We're a flagship school, let’s act like it. I wish we were a Virginia, GT, Florida, UGA. Look at their academic, athletic and NCAA stats before making these glib comments. DIII and mid-majors are just as likely to have academic issues.

 

Totally agree

 

UMMMM- I took golf at UA in the mid 80's, also took bowling - never took basket weaving - but then I've taken just about every INTRO course offered by the university. UA used to have PE classes - by the way many of these were more difficult than many of the "INTRO to" academic classes.

[danefan]

I think I kind of started the "overzealous" talk so I wanted to clarify that I was just kidding. I want UA to build the nicest athletic facilities within 100 miles. It would be great to make it a sporting destination. I'm just selfish and want the football stadium to be built before anything else happens.