Future Alex Box Stadium

I think spending money on a great facility is useless is you only have 350 fans in attendance.

I love The Box and I know it needs improvements. Part of it's charm is it's location and I would hate to see that lost.

 

I think its a part of their "If you biuld it, they will come" plan. They also brought in a new coach and they are definitely pumping some money into the program.

 

I know the college game is growing by leaps and bounds. Otherwise the record set at the Dome would not have been broken 3 times last year. If the university builds a new stadium, I will gladly attend. But if anyone believes building a multi-million dollar facility will bring a national championship- they are sadly mistaken.

Popularity Of College Game Continues To Grow</FONT>




By Will Kimmey
September 1, 2004

Fans in the Louisiana bayou love nothing more than to see their college baseball teams. They proved it on April 10, 2002, when an NCAA-record crowd of 27,673 packed into the Louisiana Superdome to watch Louisiana State beat Tulane 9-5.

Much to those fans’ dismay, their attendance record was broken in 2004—and three different times, no less. College baseball’s popularity rose to new heights thanks to several factors, including a national title defense by Rice’s unprecedented pitching trio, the superlative season of Long Beach State’s Jered Weaver, ESPN’s expanded postseason television coverage, and last but not least, the on-field success of the teams.

The last reason was the driving force behind the most unlikely of events to unseat the Superdome record. The Spring Baseball Classic at Atlanta’s Turner Field in May pitted Georgia against Georgia Tech and drew 28,836 fans, the second-largest crowd to ever watch a college baseball game.

“Around here, we might get that kind of attendance for a football game, but not a baseball game,” said Renee Fraley, event coordinator for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which generated $260,000 for the Brain Tumor Foundation from the game.

Georgia Tech won 12-5, and the event also opened with a high school game between Atlanta-based Marist and St. Pius. The attendance was buoyed because the college teams were ranked in Baseball America’s Top 25 at the time and each rode double-digit win streaks into the contest.

Still, the turnout was stunning for an event that didn’t receive quite as much lead-up publicity as a game between San Diego State and Houston in March. That game set the record, as 40,106 fans packed into the first game at Petco Park, the Padres’ new downtown ballpark. That event also featured local icon Tony Gwynn in the dugout for the Aztecs, as the Padres organization honored their former star before the game by naming a street after him.

“Isn’t that cool?” said Kevin Stocker, the former Phillies shortstop who provided television analysis for the Petco game. “I’d be dying as a player to play in a game like that. I’m really excited and honored to be a part of it.”

Interest in those college games was comparable to the major league inhabitants of the stadiums. The college event at Petco outdrew 31 of 55 Padres home dates, and the Turner Field attendance surpassed 27 of 52 Braves openings.

“Obviously college baseball is enjoying great popularity, and one of the things I think that helps it is there’s still a bit of innocence to it. The players aren’t professionals yet and many won’t ever be,” said Dennis Poppe, NCAA director of baseball administration. “The College World Series has generated a lot of attention from that. The beauty of the College World Series every year is you start watching a bunch of unknown players, and then you learn about the kids as it goes on.”

There’s no better illustration of the game’s growing popularity than the College World Series. The 2004 event set seven session attendance records, including the four largest crowds ever. A record 28,216 fans packed into Rosenblatt Stadium for a CWS session pitting Texas against Georgia and South Carolina against Cal State Fullerton. It was the third-largest college baseball crowd of the year—and all-time.

“I’m kind of a middle-of-the-road guy, thinking at some point this (attendance) is going to kind of level out,” Poppe said. “I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and when we had 28,000 at a session this year, I was very surprised. It just keeps growing.”

The average of 23,339 fans a session also set a new record, but the 256,730 total fans fell just shy of 2003’s mark of 260,091, which was accomplished with one more game.

The fan frenzy carried over to television, as ESPN’s coverage of the CWS championship series drew an average of 1.32 million viewers, which represented a 7.4 percent increase from last year’s championship series. Games one and two drew the third- and fourth-best ratings of any cable sports telecasts that week, placing behind the Sunday night major league game and the NBA draft on ESPN.

ESPN also bulked up its coverage of the road to Omaha this year, showing every inning of the 16-team super-regional round on ESPN, ESPN2 and a pay-per-view package.

“ESPN certainly helps bring it to the casual fan,” Poppe said. “They do a lot of up-close and personal profiles in addition to showing the live games, and that draws people in.”

Individual college programs also set at least 20 game and 15 season attendance records. Arkansas drew 10,027 fans to Baum Stadium for a super-regional matchup against Florida State, the largest on-campus crowd in NCAA history, and set a single-season record for attendance. Southwest Missouri State opened Hammons Stadium and drew 9,017 to its first game on its way to drawing 75,186 fans for the season. And the success trickled down to schools such as Middle Tennessee State, UNC Wilmington and Brigham Young.

Long Beach State’s average attendance spiked by 200 fans a game, and by almost 700 on Friday nights as the Jered Weaver circus sprang to life. Weaver also drew huge road crowds, with three opponents setting single-game records on nights he pitched.

“He’s brought more attention to our program than any one player ever has,” Long Beach State pitching coach Troy Buckley said. “People not involved in college baseball are getting excited at getting the chance to see one of the best pitchers in competition at the college level.”

Grassroots baseball support wasn’t simply limited to the college game. As national media coverage has increased at the high school level and below, record turnouts have become common at the prep level. The Little League World Series has reached new heights of popularity with extensive coverage on ESPN, and other youth events like the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, N.M., draw packed houses every year.

No better example was found than in Maine, hardly regarded as a baseball hotbed. But when Deering High met Mount Ararat High in the state Class A baseball championship in June, the game had to be moved to Hadlock Field, the home of the Eastern League’s Portland Sea Dogs, and 6,770 fans showed up to watch. Deering won the game and the state title, beating righthander Mark Rogers, who signed with the Brewers as a first-round pick a week later.

And fan interest in Louisiana runs strong even below the college level. An estimated 13,000 fans turned out over two days for the Louisiana Class 5-A playoffs in Baton Rouge. Across the border, Texans also showed their support in record numbers. An estimated 45,000 fans attended the state baseball playoffs in Austin and Round Rock over a four-day span.

The Class 5-A title went to Moody High of Corpus Christi. The Trojans were making their seventh trip to the semifinal round of the state playoffs but had never won the title. “They brought most of the community with them, about a three-hour drive to Round Rock,” said Kim Rogers, Texas high school director of public information.

The emergence of high school all-star games and their immediate success is another indication of the sport’s vitality at the high school level. The second annual AFLAC All-American Classic drew more than 4,000 fans (see Page 47), and the broadcast of the game was shown on Fox Sports Net.

As long as people keep watching, the exposure for the amateur game will only increase, and it’s clear more and more people are interested in watching.

Contributing: Alan Matthews.

www.baseballamerica.com

 

I have a compromise; let's do what the Boston Red Sox are doing.

They are constructing a brand new, state-of-the-art stadium, which will also be known as Fenway Park.

What are they going to do with the old one? Build a steel and glass, climate-controlled shell over the old one and make it into a huge, Boston Red Sox museum, which will have exhibits and displays on the history of the franchise. It, along with new Fenway Park and a new office building and training center, is supposed to make one huge Red Sox complex.

I suggest doing the same thing with LSU baseball. Build a newer, bigger, state-of-the-art Alex Box Stadium. Build a shell building over the old one and make it a museum for LSU baseball, or maybe LSU athletics; enough room is available for it to be the new home of, perhaps, our Athletic Hall of Fame. Parts of the stadium can be removed to provide additional green space or parking, if necessary, but the core of the stadium can be kept intact and housed in a building.

What are your thoughts on that idea?

 

Ole Miss also has great new baseball facilities, LSU needs to build one from scratch I think, as Bertman seems to think renovating the Box may cost almost as much as building a new one. We need something that can seat 15,000 or so, than also have room for 20,000 picnic fans in the outfield on a hill. :wink:

 

This will not be a popular suggestion but.... I'd rather see them build a new baseball stadium on a different site. The current location really limits what can be done with outfield seating since it is so close to the road. For all I care, go ahead and tear the whole thing down after a new stadium is built.

Give Skip Bertman some kind of recognition in the naming of the new stadium - he deserves it! Keep the old name intact as well though. Something similar to what Florida State did with their football stadium. "Alex Box Stadium at Skip Bertman Field"

 

since when? I thought that was just one of many proposals?