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I have heard on here a few times about Summers-Taylor, Thomas Stadium and Bassler Field not being completed. What is still left to do at those places? Are there plans for the JC Cardinals to make Thomas Stadium their home?
Bassler Field - No Press Box, very little parking and no room to expand. Stadium was crammed on a postage stamp field.

Thomas Stadium - Press Box is built on ground level. Its on the same level as walk areas. They have to chain off the area in front of press box so announcers can see the field. Not enough private boxes. No presidents box. No concession space. The design of the building is nice, just not big enough and not two stories.

Don't know much about Summers-Taylor except that the soccer stadium and two practice fields were turned the wrong way and there were problems with disability access. They take up a huge area and have made it difficult to plan the football stadium and the outdoor track. Outdoor track and soccer could have occupied the same area and used the same stadium as has been done at many other colleges and universities.

This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Bassler Field - No Press Box, very little parking and no room to expand. Stadium was crammed on a postage stamp field.

Thomas Stadium - Press Box is built on ground level. Its on the same level as walk areas. They have to chain off the area in front of press box so announcers can see the field. Not enough private boxes. No presidents box. No concession space. The design of the building is nice, just not big enough and not two stories.

Don't know much about Summers-Taylor except that the soccer stadium and two practice fields were turned the wrong way and there were problems with disability access. They take up a huge area and have made it difficult to plan the football stadium and the outdoor track. Outdoor track and soccer could have occupied the same area and used the same stadium as has been done at many other colleges and universities.

This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Do you remember those clowns actually had an $80 mil athletic capital campaign on paper that was sort of half way announced within a year of dropping football -- that did include a new basketball arena. Their promise was to build these little projects first before the arena.
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Bassler Field - No Press Box, very little parking and no room to expand. Stadium was crammed on a postage stamp field.

Thomas Stadium - Press Box is built on ground level. Its on the same level as walk areas. They have to chain off the area in front of press box so announcers can see the field. Not enough private boxes. No presidents box. No concession space. The design of the building is nice, just not big enough and not two stories.

Don't know much about Summers-Taylor except that the soccer stadium and two practice fields were turned the wrong way and there were problems with disability access. They take up a huge area and have made it difficult to plan the football stadium and the outdoor track. Outdoor track and soccer could have occupied the same area and used the same stadium as has been done at many other colleges and universities.

This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Who did they hire to do the design work for those complexes?
(04-15-2015 06:05 PM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Bassler Field - No Press Box, very little parking and no room to expand. Stadium was crammed on a postage stamp field.

Thomas Stadium - Press Box is built on ground level. Its on the same level as walk areas. They have to chain off the area in front of press box so announcers can see the field. Not enough private boxes. No presidents box. No concession space. The design of the building is nice, just not big enough and not two stories.

Don't know much about Summers-Taylor except that the soccer stadium and two practice fields were turned the wrong way and there were problems with disability access. They take up a huge area and have made it difficult to plan the football stadium and the outdoor track. Outdoor track and soccer could have occupied the same area and used the same stadium as has been done at many other colleges and universities.

This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Who did they hire to do the design work for those complexes?

A cousin of Mullins.
(04-15-2015 06:20 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 06:05 PM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Bassler Field - No Press Box, very little parking and no room to expand. Stadium was crammed on a postage stamp field.

Thomas Stadium - Press Box is built on ground level. Its on the same level as walk areas. They have to chain off the area in front of press box so announcers can see the field. Not enough private boxes. No presidents box. No concession space. The design of the building is nice, just not big enough and not two stories.

Don't know much about Summers-Taylor except that the soccer stadium and two practice fields were turned the wrong way and there were problems with disability access. They take up a huge area and have made it difficult to plan the football stadium and the outdoor track. Outdoor track and soccer could have occupied the same area and used the same stadium as has been done at many other colleges and universities.

This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Who did they hire to do the design work for those complexes?

A cousin of Mullins.

Really?
I actually think that they did a very good job with the softball stadium. They look a lot that they owned which would be literally good for nothing else and put a serviceable softball stadium on it. 500 seats are plenty, and I do not foresee any need for expansion.

I also think that they did a good job with the baseball stadium. My biggest complaint on that place is the size of the net which extends all the way to the ends of the sideline seats. Concession area is small but is all that will ever be needed. I have heard nothing but good things to say about that place, and they do a good job making it a nice place to watch a game.

Summers-Taylor was messed up from the start but I think they got the disability issues, etc. fixed finally. Yes the orientation makes it difficult for other things such as football, but Mullins & Stanton had no anticipation of football's return or else they wouldn't have even put the soccer stadium in that general area. That was a perfect spot for the football stadium. But that is the location and the orientation indicated on the master plan at the time.

Bottom line is that I believe our facilities are a very big advantage for us going forward. We need a solution for basketball but everything else is in good shape which will look great if we need to change conferences again in the hopefully near future.
(04-15-2015 06:05 PM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Who did they hire to do the design work for those complexes?

That's what I'd like to know.
(04-15-2015 08:34 PM)Seattle Bucs Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 06:05 PM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]
(04-15-2015 03:10 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]This is why I mentioned in another post about Dr. Noland/Dr. Sander hiring a professional sports architect to plan the football stadium.

mullins and his local cronies screwed up the entire sports master plan. ETSU will now have to spend monies to renovate, at some later date, nearly new facilities. Not only did mullins screw up the sports program, he messed up the facilities also. What a waste of money. Way to go dave.

Who did they hire to do the design work for those complexes?

That's what I'd like to know.

According to Wikipedia it was Ken Ross Architects http://www.kenross.com/ . If you go to the site and then look under in progress, it shows a picture of the design and it is much different than what is actually out there. Maybe there is still lots of things that are to big added.
There are no dressing/locker rooms there. Players have to get dressed at dome.
(04-15-2015 12:53 PM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]I have heard on here a few times about Summers-Taylor, Thomas Stadium and Bassler Field not being completed. What is still left to do at those places? Are there plans for the JC Cardinals to make Thomas Stadium their home?

I can say, with certainty, there is no way the Cardinals will make Thomas Stadium a permanent home. They will play a few games there every year, but FieldTurf all season is unappealing to a pro team unless it's necessary because of climate (like in Oregon, where turf is almost vital in the summer). Not to mention there is no on-site clubhouse, workout, or laundry facility, things the Cards all have on Legion Street.

On top of that, as others have said, the press box was built in the wrong spot. At Tusculum, they built it right up behind (and above) the seats so they wouldn't have to cordon off a portion of the concourse. It's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's pretty inefficient.

Basler Field is okay. It, too, lacks a clubhouse, and the "press box" is a tent with no place for a broadcast crew. Other than that, the facility is more than sufficient for softball, and the scenery looking out beyond the outfield wall is unbeatable.

Summers-Taylor is a good facility. Fans are right on top of the sidelines, and the place seems built to hold in sound: I was there for some of the bigger crowds a few years back (UNC, Wake, Clemson), and the place got pretty loud. It could stand to have permanent seating on the east side, maybe with a dedicated entrance, but the berm seems to be pretty popular and lets people bring pets or allows school organizations to paint messages in the grass. There's really no space for dressing rooms out there unless a new field house gets built as a hub for football, track, soccer, tennis, and softball, with a clubhouse on-site at Thomas Stadium for baseball. I'm not sure there's even space for that, or if it makes economic sense at all when the Dome seems to be serving that purpose pretty well at the moment. That's probably a $4-5 million project - money that should be put toward a football stadium.

Overall, there are ways they could be better, and money should be spent to improve them at some point, but I don't think ETSU will lose recruits in these sports because of facilities. The athletic department can afford to punt on upgrades for now with other, bigger investments on the horizon.
It is an exciting time for ETSU. Other institutions grew and surpassed ETSU over the last several decades. Now, it is ETSU's turn. The academic structure is in place and awaiting full utilization by future, degree value seeking students and athletics are on the move -- the school is poised to enjoy a great ride over the next upcoming decades.
Any news on facilities? Has there been any talk of building the proposed track and field facility?
There should be a new facilities master plan coming out next year. In the meantime, what do you all think the priorities should be for the ETSU athletic facilities? Here is my list in order:

Phase 2 of football stadium: Complete end zone seats to get seating to 10k. Add concessions and restrooms at the south end of both sides (wait on field house).

Outdoor Track and Field facility: This should have been included with the Soccer field but oh well. Not having an outdoor track is a bad look. This needs to happen soon. The master plan also calls for a multi use building at the track that will house soccer and track teams.

Upgrades to Baseball stadium: Need locker rooms and hitting facility.

Football field house: This is something that doesn't need rushed. Make this a show piece.

The athletic department also needs to lay out the long term plan for basketball. A new facility does not have to be built right away but a plan on what they want to do needs to be. I would personally like to see them work with the city on 8-10k arena downtown.
(05-31-2017 08:17 AM)brock20 Wrote: [ -> ]There should be a new facilities master plan coming out next year. In the meantime, what do you all think the priorities should be for the ETSU athletic facilities? Here is my list in order:

Outdoor Track and Field facility: This should have been included with the Soccer field but oh well. Not having an outdoor track is a bad look. This needs to happen soon. The master plan also calls for a multi use building at the track that will house soccer and track teams.

Nothing, and I mean *nothing*, should now take priority over getting a new track. There's no way the other one should have been 'lost' when it was, but that's water under the bridge now. (And yes, it should somehow have been incorporated into the soccer facility - at the very least.) We've got a *great* track & field coach, and we're to some degree wasting his ability. Yes, fortunately, we've got the dome's track, and it's been wonderful. But we need to be hosting meets, and the dome just isn't equipped to handle field stuff (well).

Not dissing the other sports, but it's a total embarrassment not to have a track, with a school with this student size.

Secondly, we desperately need an indoor tennis facility - which was "promised" over 10 years ago when the new courts were being planned. (Thank you dave mullins and paulie.) An indoor facility, selling "memberships", or access, or however it will be structured, will solidify and up donor dollars, which will be needed now that Yaser has left the scene.

IMO, IF POSSIBLE, these two things should have been done before the football stadium (not the team, the stadium - IF Johnson City would have allowed us to play one or two more years at Science Hill). However, I know well the realities, and the priorities, and I'm certainly not unhappy about the football progress. And I know that just wasn't going to happen, so that's water under the bridge, too.

And yet again, not dissing baseball......but isn't the hitting facility in the dome at least fairly workable? It's certainly been workable for decades. I know it's not ideal, or perfect, but virtually all years since the dome's been here, hitting has not been our problem.
(05-31-2017 12:33 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]But we need to be hosting meets, and the dome just isn't equipped to handle field stuff (well).

How much would it cost to build the track close to what is in the master plan?
http://jcnewsandneighbor.com/johnson-cit...ch-center/

No idea what to make of this but could impact athletics.
Approx cost of outdoor track facility..............3.5 mil
(06-21-2017 06:16 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Approx cost of outdoor track facility..............3.5 mil

I think that's pretty doable.
(06-21-2017 06:16 PM)buc73 Wrote: [ -> ]Approx cost of outdoor track facility..............3.5 mil

That seems high......but I admit it's certainly outside my realm of expertise. And I'm assuming no additional land would need to be purchased/acquired. I guess we'll see when the new master plan comes out - as if they would stick to it. (Sorry, that's still an old mullins reflex reaction.)

But really, imo, we can't afford *not* to have one. And yet that's where we are - so clearly I'm wrong about that, somehow.
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