Nice to think of baseball in this weather. Huskies open against MN in AZ in February.

http://www.niuhuskies.com/sports/m-baseb...sched.html

I was hoping for a series out here.

Boo.

Now that the Yordon and Chessick Centers are in place NIU needs to upgrade the baseball "stadium". If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

The Ohio U baseball field/structure is a nice model, too.

Problem is the weather doesn't get baseball-friendly around here until the semester's out.

Make baseball a summer/fall sport. play the CWS in mid September so the kids who play in the Midwest and northeast can get some good weather.

(12-11-2013 12:52 PM)niuco90 Wrote:  Make baseball a summer/fall sport. play the CWS in mid September so the kids who play in the Midwest and northeast can get some good weather.

+1,000

Baseball is brutal for midwest/northern schools.

Not to threadjack, but I know it won't happen in the near future, but college baseball is the argument that should be made for a 32 or 16 team college football playoff. For those who whine they worry about the students, it's BS, because baseball teams play 60 games before the college world series starts.

Go back to an 11 game basic schedule and the vast majority of the 120+ FBS teams actually will play less games. You could even have a play-in tourney - all of it would be much better than the stupid plan for next year or the current BCS format.

(12-11-2013 11:37 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Now that the Yordon and Chessick Centers are in place NIU needs to upgrade the baseball "stadium". If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

I recently spoke to a donor and he said a few donors have been touring numerous baseball stadiums around the country looking for ideas for potential renovation. He specifically said that one of the places was University of Tennessee.. Have you seen that stadium?

A stadium half that would be nice.

(12-11-2013 01:48 PM)NiuFootballfan Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 11:37 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Now that the Yordon and Chessick Centers are in place NIU needs to upgrade the baseball "stadium". If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

I recently spoke to a donor and he said a few donors have been touring numerous baseball stadiums around the country looking for ideas for potential renovation. He specifically said that one of the places was University of Tennessee.. Have you seen that stadium?

I have been in Tennessee's baseball stadium and it is the size of a typical modern minor league stadium. That would be complete overkill for NIU so I'm not sure why they would use that as a yardstick. Kent State's and WMU's would be much more our speed.

What you can't see in the pic above is that Tennessee's grandstand/pressbox go way above the lower bowl that is shown. The place is huge.

(12-11-2013 02:04 PM)NIU1981 Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 01:48 PM)NiuFootballfan Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 11:37 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Now that the Yordon and Chessick Centers are in place NIU needs to upgrade the baseball "stadium". If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

I recently spoke to a donor and he said a few donors have been touring numerous baseball stadiums around the country looking for ideas for potential renovation. He specifically said that one of the places was University of Tennessee.. Have you seen that stadium?

I have been in Tennessee's baseball stadium and it is the size of a typical modern minor league stadium. That would be complete overkill for NIU so I'm not sure why they would use that as a yardstick. Kent State's and WMU's would be much more our speed.

What you can't see in the pic above is that Tennessee's grandstand/pressbox go way above the lower bowl that is shown. The place is huge.

Yeah their obviously not going to build a replica stadium but he said they are taking ideas from the stadium- probably should have clarified that. It would be very illogical to build a $20 + million stadium at NIU where, on a good day, you'll have 100 fans at a game.

If you build it, they will come.

But really, I think they want more then just the stands to be replicated. Such as dugouts and stuff.

About 3-4 years a minor league team approached NIU about completely redoing the stadium, so they could use it in the Summer. They also wanted to be able to serve beer during their games. Compher turned down the offer. Not sure if it was his decision or Peters, but I know the offer was out there and rejected.

(12-11-2013 02:17 PM)golf4501 Wrote:  About 3-4 years a minor league team approached NIU about completely redoing the stadium, so they could use it in the Summer. They also wanted to be able to serve beer during their games. Compher turned down the offer. Not sure if it was his decision or Peters, but I know the offer was out there and rejected.

was this an affiliated minor league team or an independent. I live by kane county cougars, but would have definitely made an effort to see a dekalb based AFFILIATED team!

(12-11-2013 11:37 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

I'm inclined to let it go for the moment with nothing but a serious eyebrow hoist....

(12-11-2013 02:58 PM)huskiealum03 Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 02:17 PM)golf4501 Wrote:  About 3-4 years a minor league team approached NIU about completely redoing the stadium, so they could use it in the Summer. They also wanted to be able to serve beer during their games. Compher turned down the offer. Not sure if it was his decision or Peters, but I know the offer was out there and rejected.

was this an affiliated minor league team or an independent. I live by kane county cougars, but would have definitely made an effort to see a dekalb based AFFILIATED team!

And if it was Indy all you need to do is look up the Lake County Fielders to see you're potentially unreliable fly by night operations and the money might not ever been real.

(12-11-2013 03:21 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 11:37 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  If they built a stadium comparable to Kent State's with a clubhouse and hitting tunnels they would have facilities to rival anyone in the country. They could compete for the college world series on a regular basis.

I'm inclined to let it go for the moment with nothing but a serious eyebrow hoist....

I didn't say they would win it. They would compete to get into it from time to time. Kent State did it last year. Our facilities would be second to none if we had a state of the art stadium right next to Chessick/Yordon. The program would be real good in a hurry.