Quote:Georgia State football has reaped tangible benefits including more school spirit, a huge increase in donations and bringing disconnected alumni back to campus wearing blue and white. The campus continues to grow as new on campus dorms have been opened in two out of the last three years.

The next logical step was a serious upgrade in our athletic facilities. The football team led by head coach Bill Curry already play in the Georgia Dome and this Spring opened a state of the art practice facility located on 188 Martin Luther King Drive, just blocks from campus.

Georgia State athletics released their 2010-11 Annual report to Panther Athletic Club members and it included projections of the new Georgia State Sports Arena, an in town baseball facility and an in town softball facility. We give you an exclusive first look at all three beginning with the Georgia State Sports Arena.

Quote:This 5,000 seat Arena will feature the court turned 90 degrees (instead of entering the Arena at the basket end, you’ll enter on the sidelines). Their will also be [by my count], 12 luxury box suites and seating behind the goals [presumably for students].

In the day and time when athletic departments across the country are preparing for their close up, Georgia State athletics is not sitting and watching. Our leadership is preparing our development team to have tangible images in speaking with donors and prospective donors. This is a great time to be a Panther!

Quote:Many of us Georgia State fans have been waiting a long time to see plans for a new Panthersville on or near campus. Those who recently received the 2010-2011 Georgia State Athletics Annual Report were given a look at some pictures of the proposed renovations to the Sports Arena as well as artist renderings of a new baseball and softball field located downtown. Ryan covered the Sports Arena in Part 1 of this series and now we’ll be looking at the drawings for the baseball and softball fields.

The Georgia State Baseball program has turned into an expected perennial winner under Head Coach Greg Frady. In his first five seasons as Head Coach the team has made the CAA Championship tournament in four out of five seasons including a current run of 3 straight. This run also includes a CAA Championship and a trip to the NCAA Regionals in 2010. This program has outgrown the current field at Panthersville. They are deserving of a quality Division 1 baseball stadium and the Georgia State Administration is going to make that happen. The following image is an artist rendering of the proposed new Georgia State Baseball stadium.

Quote:This is obviously a sketch drawing but we here at PantherTalk believe the drawing to be accurate to the desired end product. The only caveat would be the backdrop and any last minute changes they make to the stadium. The backdrop will obviously depend on the exact location of the field (which is not final to our knowledge) but rest assured the backdrop will be the skyscrapers of Atlanta and now we’re talking a real baseball stadium. Let’s take a look at a few more of the important features I notice.

It appears the outfield wall will be constructed of a fence material that will allow students and people who may be walking by to have a view of the field. This is a great idea. After seeing the quality baseball on the field, eventually people will want a closer look and start buying tickets. I don’t think the artist would go out of his way to make the fence see-through if this wasn’t in the plans.
Full baseline stadium seating. The current field only has seating between the dugouts equivalent to most county recreational fields. This will increase seating capacity, which I believe will be needed for this program down the road, and it will give the stadium a more “big league” feel.
Real below playing surface dugouts. Again, this goes a long way in giving the stadium a professional feel.
Covered seating between 1st and 3rd base. This will be much appreciated and will reduce those half faced sun burns (the right side if you’re wondering) we’re used to getting during a 1:00 Sunday game in April and May.
Fully integrated and enclosed press box. Completes the stadium and appears to allow for more press rooms. I can’t help but to wonder if there may be a suite or four on the ends of that enclosure.
Something I just noticed after having seen this image over the past few days, if you look down the right field foul line past 3rd base it looks like there is a building with field access. This could be a field house containing indoor hitting and pitching facilities with an attached equipment house as well.
Now that we’ve covered the baseball field it’s time to talk about the new field for the current CAA Champions, Georgia State Softball.

Quote:After looking at the rendering of the softball stadium, it appears all of the same features used on the baseball field will be repeated for Softball including an attached indoor field houe/equipment house. All of the same benefits will apply here.

With Georgia being consistently a top 5 state in producing baseball talent there is no reason Georgia State cannot be a national power in baseball, in such a way that Georgia Tech and Georgia are able to remain in the upper echelon of college baseball. These new facilities will overall strengthen the programs, bring in better talent and increase fan and student attendance. I hope to see a fundraising campaign soon rolled out in an effort to raise the capital needed to produce the amazing facilities shown above.

We would love to hear your comments and questions on the above photos!