UCA athletic facilities get $5.5 million facelift
Posted on Friday, October 31, 2008
CONWAY — When Central Arkansas track Coach Richard Martin talks to recruits about running on the same track surface used at the Beijing Olympics, he’s not talking about some time faraway.
He’s talking about at practice every afternoon.
That’s because this spring the Bears cross country and track and field teams will be running each day on a Mondo track that crews are finishing this week. The track, the soccer field that sits inside it and a renovation to the Bears’ baseball stadium were all part of a $ 5. 5 million facilities project this fall.
The Mondo track is the same 2008 model installed at the China National Stadium, or Bird’s Nest, where the track and field events were held at the 2008 Olympics.
“It’s really an incredible surface,” Martin said. “The guy out here from Mondo, from Italy, told us that we could be running on this thing in two weeks.”
The projects were among the first things on Central Arkansas Athletic Director Brad Teague’s agenda when he took the job in January 2007.
“I knew coming in that we had a 5 1 / 2 million dollar bond to upgrade facilities, but how we spent it was something that we had to decide as an athletic department,” Teague said.
Teague knew that building a track to sustain the track and field program was vital, because a track essentially fuels six of the school’s 17 athletic programs — something the school had to have as an NCAA Division I institution.
The other big project is remodeling the school’s baseball stadium.
Or, as Central Arkansas baseball Coach Doug Clark puts it, “making the stadium look like a stadium.”
Teague, an NCAA Division II All-American pitcher at Delta State, said putting in stands and a concourse at UCA Field was important for two reasons.
The first was that the Southland Conference and the school agreed that the baseball stadium needed some improvements to be in line with the other conference members. The other reason came down to revenue.
“For the first time, we’re going to charge admission to UCA games,” Clark said.
Additionally, the stadium affords the Bears opportunities for season-ticketed seat back chairs and signage that the old setup lacked.
The baseball stadium project cost around $ 3. 5 million, in part, because of expenses such as an elevator that was necessary to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
Even with the tab at more than $ 3 million, there were things the Bears had to do without.
“We originally had bathrooms on either side, but we had to leave one side as an empty shell because it was just too expensive,” Teague said.
Roughly $ 2 million of the funds were funneled into construction of a track / soccer complex next to the school’s softball field at Donaghey Avenue and Dave Ward Drive.
Part of the reason that Central Arkansas was able to afford a world-class track for the program, now in its second year after being restarted in 2006, was that Mondo gave the school a deal on the surface.
“They wanted to use our track as a model to show other schools how good this track looks,” Teague said. “So they installed the 2008 model for a discounted 2007 price.”
Teague figures the construction of the concrete oval, plus $ 750, 000 for the track itself, ran somewhere between $ 1. 1 and $ 1. 3 million.
All of this is a part of Teague’s long-term vision for facilities at Central Arkansas.
“We want to be finishing construction or remodeling on at least one project every year,” Teague said.
Other things being discussed are a remodel of the Farris Center, where the Bears and Sugar Bears basketball teams play; a workout facility attached to the Pepsi Indoor Center, where the Bears football team practices; a similar building behind the right field fence for the baseball team; skyboxes on top of the press box at Estes Stadium, and other, more far-reaching projects.
“One day, we’d like to have an on-campus arena for our basketball and volleyball programs,” Teague said. “But we have to be realistic about our fundraising abilities and the times we live in. We’ll get there, though.”
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