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Looks like a dream facility to me.
You think anyone is going to say that about the fan-friendly confines of the FC?

Other than Estes Stadium I don't think UCA has much to brag about in the way of athletic facilities.

The photograph makes it look ALOT better than what it really is.

When we were playing them in basketball, they did not draw very well.

Monty

Just curious Monkey, but have you seen the facilities of the rest of the SLC teams?

The reason I ask is that I have been told that except for baseball we match up fairly well with the rest of the SLC.

Maybe that is not cause for bragging, but really all we have to compete with directly in terms of recruiting, etc. is the rest of the league.

I have seen the basketball facilities at UT-Arlington (joke) and Tx State (bigger than the FC but hardly a showplace).

I'd have to agree with you 75...IMHO, you are being generious when you say that Texas Hall at Arlington is a joke. It's pretty bad.

The Texas State facility is just BIGGER...not necessarily better.

The only place in the league that I like better than the Farris Center is the facility at Lamar. SFA also has a VERY fine facility. SELA is a big facility, but the same problem that the FC has in that the fans are too far away from the floor. Nicholls and UTSA are kind of like hyper facilities.

Basically, at the end of the day, with the exception of baseball, I think our facilities stand up pretty well against the other programs in the SLC.

Of the big three, football, basketball, and baseball, the only one that doesn't seem to match up to the competition's facilities is baseball. I'm basing that opinion on photographs of other facilites that people have posted in the past. We're behind the times in facilities for baseball, but Estes and Farris are both plenty adequate for now.

It's to the point now that the ballfield is probably making it difficult for the Bears to recruit in Southland country.

BF, you've seen as many Southland Conference ballparks as anyone, what's your more-informed take on that?

BF is on the road with the Sugarbears so I will attempt to answer your question ? I havn't seen them all, but I will tell you about the ones that I have seen.

Sam Houston is the VERY nicest one that I have seen. Don't know the age of the facility, but it is most likely about two to three years old. VERY nice.

SELA is an older facility, but very neat and clean.

McNeese was doing work on their stands and press box facilities the last time I was there so I havn't seen the finished product. I can tell you that at that time, it needed some work.

UTSA has a very nice, neat and small ballpark. Located on the backside of campus near an apartment complex, their seating is limited and the pressbox is VERY small, but it was a nice small facility. In fact, I was told while down there that they want to build a new facility that would seat 2000 3000. No time table was mentioned.

Northwestern St. has an older facility, but appears to be pretty well kept.

There are a few other that I have seen at a distance, but didn't get a good enough look to draw any conclusions.

Sorry I couldn't give you an answer on all of the facilities.

Monty

I never really saw the inside, but I know that the McNeese stadium pretty much got blown away. They had to rebuild a lot, so it's possibly changed some since you saw it?

When we were down there for the football game we threw up our tent right behind the fence. And let me tell you, the back side of that fence is pretty nice. (Seriously, it did look like it was a well-done fence.)

Not as old as it looks. The field has been there for a long time, but the stadium itself was built in 1994-95. We just finished having the dugouts bricked in and a brick retaining wall installed around the perimeter of the playing field. Soon, we'll replace the chain link that surrounds the stadium with fencing that has the wrought iron look. In the works are an indoor hitting facility beyond the left field wall and a new clubhouse down the first base line.

Was not trying to offend you or your fans regarding your facility.

For a fact, it is neat and clean. I guess I can equate the older looking to something rustic. Poor attempt on my part trying to describe stuff.

I guess in some ways your park kind of as a Wrigley Field feel to it.

Monty

I have heard Lu say on several occasions that Southland was very impressed with athletic facilities except for baseball. Estes is terrific...FC is more than adequate and in amazingly good shape for a 30+ year old building.....ball field obviously needs work...drove by the ball field today and the lights look great...is the money set aside for the other improvements? I have heard conflicting comments but latest I heard was the money is there....I like having our facilties embedded in the campus and the improved ball field will be great....

The more I think about the FC, it would be great to get the courtside walls removed but instead of PCC seating I would put the students on the floor and let them get into the game....student sections on the floor can better "assist" the referees for instance..you will still need a good elevated section for us old guys so we can sit back and arm chair coach and "observe".....

Estes can expanded as we prove we can fill it up but it a nice faciltity....

Maybe sooner than later we will have a really nice plaza where Bruce Street is today that ties the three facilties into a single sector on campus....I have heard this may be closer to reality than I have thought...still a few years out......apparently City of Conway is working on what needs to be done to take care of the traffic that now uses Bruce....

GoBears!!

LONG post ahead...

As much traveling as I have done, the FC stacks up pretty well with other SLC schools for those of you that havent been able to travel the SLC and look at some of the gyms the rest of the schools play in. I think Monty and 75 (and even KOTS) can and have helped try to explain this to some of you in this thread. Monty did leave off Corpus Christi's arena, that is the nicest in the conference bar none. However, it is NOT an on campus facility ran by the school, so I put them in a different catagory.

Lamar's Montagne Center is the cream of the crop in the SLC as far as on campus arenas go in my mind. But they sure dont draw well for women. And since they dont have football, anymore, or it might be coming back, whatever...I'm sure they spent the time and money to build that place right to make it a showplace for a basketball school, and their men's history shows it too.

As far as the rest of the eastern division arena. The FC and maybe the University Center at Hammond are the cream of the crop bar none.

NW St. plays in this over-sized, arena/airplane hanger and they have curtains seperating about a 1/3 of the playing court and main seating from a volleyball court and a scoreboard no where near the playing court. It also features sections of seats that span the color of the rainbow, literally. I was also told when we were there last week, that it looked like a place that could also host rodeos and livestock shows, so who knows.

Nicholls' gym, well it had damage a few years ago during the hurricane and they are remodeling it some...but it is old, and if it isnt, it looks it, complete with the trough style urinals ala War Memorial Stadium. I may be kind in saying it is worse tham many high school gyms.

That brings me to McNeese. Burton Coliseum/Rodeo Arena/barn. Let's just say besides the size of the place, Jennings High School, where the SB's play McNeese this season, puts their real facility to shame, and it was just a high school gym. Burton is dark, or at least it was last year. It was dead empty, granted they've been down a while and they were terrible last year, not sure how they draw for guys. But it's almost like it's a rodeo arena (and a nice one for that use, seriously!) that they allow McNeese to play ball in. They would likely benefit from a basketball only facility as well.

I like the University Center, and look forward to our trip there a week from this Thursday. It reminds me of Tucker Coliseum in Russellville, complete by being decked out in all green and gold. AS mentioned before, seats WAY too far away from the court. Really, trying to picture it in my mind again, I think their seats, at least some of them, are actually further away than ours are.

Now to the Western Division...

UTA's stage is unique, I realyl did expect it to be worse than it was, but it WAS bad.

Texas State, bigger than the FC, but otehr than that, nothing special at all. It loses points with me with that rediculous wall at one end of the floor, even though it has a nice sized and well ued video board/scoreboard now. I will give them this. I do like their concourse area on the one side where they recognized all their hall of famers and have pictures and murals up of Texas St. basketball players and history, that was well done. But the other side of the concourse was jsut as bland as the FC's except they did have unopened concession stands, with one full of nothing but old, dusty trophies and banners from years and sports gone by just sitting there piled up in plain view.

UTSA's Convocation Center, as you smay have saw on tv is nothing spectcular, and really, I would expect MORE from a school that is a basketball school and does not have football (for now) It is a hyper center with seats, that's it.

Corpus' place is a mini-Alltel Arena, but as I mentioned earlier, it has an unfair advantage being a city owned and operated facility that I guess TAMCC has to pay rent for. But they DO have an on campus shack for visiting teams to go shoot around and practice in. I'll put it this way, the Prince Center, BEFORE renovations, was nicer than that place, so TAMCC runs has it all and nothing at all at the same time!

I liked SFA place, last year, and Monty just got back from there. It may have been the purple! It looks like nothing from the outside really, but on the inside well laid out, they have walls kinda like the FC, but they are not quite as high up, and they are still closer to the floor from what I can remember, Monty help me out. the concourse is all at the top, and it house their basketball programs, have huge trophey cases and honors their past, especially in women's bball, their bell cow.

I just got back from Sam Houston & Johnson Coliseum early this morning. Floor layout was fine, seats on 3 sides close to the arena floor. But I still havnt figured out why they have the one side with the score table and benches with a HUGE cut out area and have not put some type of temporary bleachers in the that area to squeeze more people in, and put them right behind the visitor's ears. Those seats WAY above the action arent aywhere NEAR the floor.

SO IF I was to be honest in my rankings of all the SLC bball facilities at this point here I go:

1A. Lamar (on campus)
1B. TAMCC (off campus)
2. SFA (name escapes me!)
3. Sam Houston (Johnson Coliseum)
4. Texas St. (Strahan Coliseum)
5. UCA! (Farris Center)
6. SELA (University Center)
7. NW St. (Prather Coliseum)
8. UTSA (Convecation Center)
9. UT Arlington (The Stage)
10. McNeese (Burton Coliseum)
11. Nicholls (Stopher Gymnasium, i think)

I think we probably all realzie that our baseball facility is just a tad down the totem pole in the SLC. So I am going to refrain from ranking the baseball facilities right now until we finish ALL our renovations. That, and I havent had a chacne to visit all of them yet as well, so I will not make an informed decision on those till I do.

But be thankful for what we do have in the FC, it could be, and IS a lot worse in and around the SLC. Sure it could probably use a renovation here or there, but all in the the FC is in pretty good shape compared to half our conference, and stacks up well with the others, minus the two at the top. But we have time to get there!