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SPECIAL REPORTS
Land, financing challenges for MU baseball stadium
Marshall University's Nate Lape slides into third base at Charleston's Appalachian Power Park this season in a game against Memphis. The Herd played all of its conference home games in Charleston this season.
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HUNTINGTON -- With success comes expectation.
And no one knows that better right now than the officials in administration and athletics at Marshall University.
On the heels of Marshall baseball's first 30-win season in the program's 102-year history, capped by a trip to the finals in the vaunted Conference USA tournament, some fans are wondering why the Thundering Herd doesn't have a place to call home on-campus.
Marshall played its home games this year at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston,
| Click here for a comparison of Conference USA's baseball facilities and each program's on-field success. |
The university is in the midst of more than $100 million in projects at the moment, including new residence halls, a student recreation center, a new engineering facility, and an alumni association center. Not to mention a $2 million softball field that opened in March and will be expanded in stages.
A baseball field is part of the university's plan for capital projects through 2013, but whether or not it will actually happen by then is another question.
"You're talking about a $6 to $12 million facility with no revenue attached to it, with no funding in place and a location that doesn't exist," said MU president Stephen Kopp. "And do you expect to saddle students with the cost of all of that? I think it would be hard to justify."
Right now, students pay $250 in fees rolled into their tuition for capital projects. That will increase by another $150 next year when the recreation center is complete. But most of the other projects under way are privately funded through money raised by the Marshall Foundation.
The university has actively campaigned this year, through a program called "The Bridge," for private funding for the new engineering building, softball field and foundation and alumni association center.
"We're still in the midst of The Bridge campaign right now," said Bill Bissett, Kopp's chief of staff. "Is a private campaign for baseball possible? Yes. But it's obviously something we'd have to look at after we're done with this campaign."
Money and land have been the two words blocking advancement of a new baseball field for some time.
The land that is available isn't cheap, and some of it might not even be viable. Many of the sites near campus that would provide the eight to 10 acres required for a baseball field -- more than twice the land needed for the softball facility -- are industrial wastelands that would have to be studied for contamination and then cleaned up well before turf, dirt and chalk-lines could go down.
"It's not that we're not working on it," Kopp said. "Just drive around here and look. We have to be very careful with these land issues."
Since 2005, the university has been paying $15,000 to $20,000 per year to rent Appalachian Power Park. That doesn't include the cost of bringing the team of 35 players plus coaches and staff to Charleston, and putting everyone up in a hotel for a weekend series. The university also spent around $200,000 to make improvements to the field at the Kennedy Center.
Kopp said he believes these expenses pale in comparison to the cost of a new ball park, and that playing at the minor league stadium in Charleston actually benefits the program.
"I have to say, what's wrong with playing in Charleston?" he said. "It gives us visibility and these teams from Conference USA come in and are really impressed with the facility."
In fact, Marshall's conference is one of the reasons fans would like to see a new field on-campus.
Conference USA is home to nationally-ranked, College World Series regulars Rice, and other high-profile baseball programs such as Houston, Southern Mississippi and Tulane.
Fellow C-USA school East Carolina University, which has demographics similar to Marshall, recently found a way to build a stadium.
All funds for the ECU project were raised privately through a capital campaign conducted by the Pirate Club, ECU's athletic fundraising arm. Once everything was done, Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium was an $11 million project, but only $1 million of that cost was geared toward excavating and field work, according to Tom McClellan, ECU's director for media relations.
MU baseball skipper Jeff Waggoner said Marshall needs a new field to seize the momentum the program is riding. He said he believes the university should take an approach similar to the softball field -- building an actual field first and then expanding.
"Everyone keeps talking about a $10 million facility, and they need to quit thinking like that," Waggoner said. "Just get us a nice field here and we can eventually build a stadium around it."
Waggoner has addressed the issue more than once. In an interview with The Herald-Dispatch in May, he talked about what an asset a new field could be for the university and the surrounding community.
"When you talk to most people, they enjoy baseball, but that atmosphere has faded because there isn't a team in the city," he said in that interview. "I think the city of Huntington would back a baseball team. Huntington is a baseball city.
"First of all, you take a nice spring day in April and bring in one of the best teams in the country like Rice. It's a great atmosphere that we'd love to see in Huntington."
But there's still the problem of finding the land.
Athletic Director Bob Marcum said he's been approached by numerous supporters of the program with suggestions for where the stadium could go, but most are not realistic.
"There's a saying in Texas that goes 'Big hat, no cattle,' " Marcum said. "We have a lot of people running around like that."
That doesn't mean Marcum doesn't want to find a solution.
"Everyone would like an on-campus stadium," he said.
Several places have been mentioned as possible sites, the most prominent being the parking lot across from ACF, which is located in between Third and Fifth Avenues on 23rd Street. Marcum said the university inquired, but was unsuccessful in its attempt to acquire the land.
"We laid a baseball field into that lot a long time ago and (ACF officials) simply said the land is not for sale," Marcum said. "That's a business decision that is made in St. Louis. It's not like there haven't been calls made. Once again, it's not a matter of finding a site, it's finding a site that's available and for sale."
Other sites that have been mentioned include property beside the Veterans Memorial Field House, which is currently occupied by Woody Williams Field and land down near the old Big Bear plaza on 29th street. Neither of which are feasible, according to Marcum.
