UF's empty ballpark is 2021 Ballpark of the Year

78 · Dec 22, 2021

Florida Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field, otherwise known as the standalone football facility that wasn’t, is 2021’s ballpark of the year.

Hooya.

Florida Ballpark Honored as 2021 College Ballpark of the Year - Florida Gators

oxrageous · Dec 22, 2021

NVGator · Dec 22, 2021

Looks basic, certainly not $15M worth.

78 · Dec 22, 2021

NVGator said:
Looks basic, certainly not $15M worth.

What do you figure for the scoreboard? $2m? The lights? Another $1m? I mean, I don’t go around pricing baseball stadiums on a regular basis. How about the Kentucky Bluegrass? Or is that the same Bahia crap I pay the lawn service to kill?

soflagator · Dec 22, 2021

It’s pretty nice from what I’ve seen of it. They did a nice job. It just wasn’t necessary at all and should’ve been way down the list of plans.

NVGator · Dec 22, 2021

78 said:
What do you figure for the scoreboard? $2m? The lights? Another $1m? I mean, I don’t go around pricing baseball stadiums on a regular basis. How about the Kentucky Bluegrass? Or is that the same Bahia crap I pay the lawn service to kill?

Exactly. Probably same Poa Annua stuff. I bet the scoreboard doesn’t even have graphics.

jdh5484 · Dec 23, 2021

Opened at the onset of the 2021 season, Florida Ballpark is a state-of-the-art, modern baseball facility featuring a 360-degree open concourse, shade structures for fans and high definition video and sound. After breaking ground in February 2019, Florida Ballpark was constructed with a $65 million budget. The stadium has a capacity of 7,000 fans and has the ability to add seating for up to 10,000.

$65M/7K fan = approx $9300 per fan

Season tickets at an avg of $750.

$9300/$750 = 12.4 season payback.

Should have just bought em some new bats.

rogdochar · Dec 23, 2021

Well, it surely is a fine looking baseball stadium. Now, promote its use by insuring solid fan attendance.
Think outside the batter's box: :cool::cool::cool:
1) Publicize charter buses to fetch fans from surrounding towns to spend a day at Gator baseball. Make it a field-trip with a couple of perky cheerleader tour guides. Make a great father-son day out of it. A packed stadium will always show money well-spent. The bus driver gives out discount coupons on food-truck food (for tailgators) :cool:
2) Have great pitching & great PR touting that pitching. Get'em looking forward to something.
3) More important fleet taking of extra-bases (exciting slides) drama.
4) Most important ** lots of line drives ricochet-rolling around those walls, etc.
5) Very most important: lead the nation in home runs. Hit a home run just about every other inning.
6) Pre-arrange with the other team to "stage" a few fights (Baseball needs an ice hockey reputation.)
7) Have cabana type drink-service to shorts-clad girls, sunbathing in the adjacent grasses.
8) Plus, make it "for-credit" that our gymnastic girls be doing somesaults on that grass between each inning change ... and pitcher changes.

In other words, have a team that's in the hunt for tournament wins & contending for the CWS. Should have secured that before you invested all that money. :cool: At a football school, baseball needs promoters. Never enough. Go Gators.

fischerwood · Dec 23, 2021

Well, it does look like it beats sitting on the splinter-filled wooden bleachers @ Perry Field ( with the hump in left field)... :jog:

...Go Gators

dz_23 · Dec 23, 2021

Well deserved

G8trwood · Dec 23, 2021

Old people like to go sit in day games. Old people donate ;) oh and they hate crowds, symbiotic relationship.

gatorgrad'02 · Dec 23, 2021

It’s a nice ballpark. I took my kids to a few games this past season. Very family friendly and reminiscent of some spring training and minor league stadiums (Clearwater comes first to mind). Yes, the scoreboard has graphics.

Was it necessary? Probably not, but it’s already been built. May as well enjoy it.

Gator By Marriage · Dec 23, 2021

jdh5484 said:
$65M/7K fan = approx $9300 per fan

Season tickets at an avg of $750.

$9300/$750 = 12.4 season payback.

Should have just bought em some new bats.

Serious question (foolish I know): Why all the hate for baseball? (It seems pretty widespread, so this is not directed at you.). The best place to build the new football facility is next to the practice fields and the IPF, as well as close to BHG. The problem was McKethan was occupying the ideal spot.

I don’t see another solution other than building a new baseball stadium in a different part of campus. (Unless of course some wanted to drop baseball.) Did UF decide to spend a lot and build a nice ball park? Sure sounds like it. (I’ve not been there and only saw one game at the old one.) Like just about everything else that gets built on a college campus, it will never really pay for itself.

The new football facility “sounds” like it will be pretty good and they’ve left themselves space for any future additions/improvements. Next on the list is housing and they’ve already announced plans to demolish Trusler Hall - coincidentally the freshman year home of both my son and Mrs G - to build a nice athletic dorm. (The renderings look pretty cool.)

I fully agree with everybody who says it has taken way too long to accomplish these things and that the lack of top notch facilities has contributed to the lack of sustained football success over the last 10+ years - though a reasonable argument could be made that with the last three Coach M’s it might not have mattered - but why does that mean a nice baseball stadium is a bad thing? (I’ve only driven past it but the relatively new softball stadium looks pretty nice too.)

Football is what pays for everything else and at UF, and every D1 school really, it should be the top priority, but sometimes certain factors beyond anyones control will cause it to have to wait to get what they want.

78 · Dec 23, 2021

Gator By Marriage said:
Serious question (foolish I know): Why all the hate for baseball? (It seems pretty widespread, so this is not directed at you.). The best place to build the new football facility is next to the practice fields and the IPF, as well as close to BHG. The problem was McKethan was occupying the ideal spot.

I don’t see another solution other than building a new baseball stadium in a different part of campus. (Unless of course some wanted to drop baseball.) Did UF decide to spend a lot and build a nice ball park? Sure sounds like it. (I’ve not been there and only saw one game at the old one.) Like just about everything else that gets built on a college campus, it will never really pay for itself.

The new football facility “sounds” like it will be pretty good and they’ve left themselves space for any future additions/improvements. Next on the list is housing and they’ve already announced plans to demolish Trusler Hall - coincidentally the freshman year home of both my son and Mrs G - to build a nice athletic dorm. (The renderings look pretty cool.)

I fully agree with everybody who says it has taken way too long to accomplish these things and that the lack of top notch facilities has contributed to the lack of sustained football success over the last 10+ years - though a reasonable argument could be made that with the last three Coach M’s it might not have mattered - but why does that mean a nice baseball stadium is a bad thing? (I’ve only driven past it but the relatively new softball stadium looks pretty nice too.)

Football is what pays for everything else and at UF, and every D1 school really, it should be the top priority, but sometimes certain factors beyond anyones control will cause it to have to wait to get what they want.

Pick an answer:

1) Couldn’t the baseball team have been made to play at Tiny Talbot Field for a year or two?
2) Baseball? What’s that?
3) Is there anything the UAA hasn’t effed up in the last decade?

Gator By Marriage · Dec 23, 2021

78 said:
Pick an answer:

1) Couldn’t the baseball team have been made to play at Tiny Talbot Field for a year or two?
2) Baseball? What’s that?
3) Is there anything the UAA hasn’t effed up in the last decade?

1) is not even worth discussing
2) it’s the most recent major mens sport at UF to win a Natty or even have a #1 ranking.
3) No comeback to this one so it must be the correct answer.

78 · Dec 23, 2021

Gator By Marriage said:
1) is not even worth discussing
2) it’s the most recent major mens sport at UF to win a Natty or even have a #1 ranking.
3) No comeback to this one so it must be the correct answer.

GatorJB · Dec 23, 2021

Gator By Marriage said:
Serious question (foolish I know): Why all the hate for baseball? (It seems pretty widespread, so this is not directed at you.). The best place to build the new football facility is next to the practice fields and the IPF, as well as close to BHG. The problem was McKethan was occupying the ideal spot.

I don’t see another solution other than building a new baseball stadium in a different part of campus. (Unless of course some wanted to drop baseball.) Did UF decide to spend a lot and build a nice ball park? Sure sounds like it. (I’ve not been there and only saw one game at the old one.) Like just about everything else that gets built on a college campus, it will never really pay for itself.

The new football facility “sounds” like it will be pretty good and they’ve left themselves space for any future additions/improvements. Next on the list is housing and they’ve already announced plans to demolish Trusler Hall - coincidentally the freshman year home of both my son and Mrs G - to build a nice athletic dorm. (The renderings look pretty cool.)

I fully agree with everybody who says it has taken way too long to accomplish these things and that the lack of top notch facilities has contributed to the lack of sustained football success over the last 10+ years - though a reasonable argument could be made that with the last three Coach M’s it might not have mattered - but why does that mean a nice baseball stadium is a bad thing? (I’ve only driven past it but the relatively new softball stadium looks pretty nice too.)

Football is what pays for everything else and at UF, and every D1 school really, it should be the top priority, but sometimes certain factors beyond anyones control will cause it to have to wait to get what they want.

I agree that in the long run it was better to build a baseball stadium elsewhere so that the football facility could be located next to the practice fields. The timing of it is really bad. We were already over a decade behind football facilities wise, and we had to wait years longer. Moving the stadium was the right choice, but that choice should have been made at least 10 years prior.

Another frustrating aspect is how much it cost. As you said, football is the moneymaker, but all of the other sports have been reaping the rewards for the last several years. Winning football programs invest the majority of their money back into football, but we have spent well over $100 million on other sports in recent years while football got tablescraps by comparison.

Football is finally getting what they need, but still probably not getting all they deserve. Did baseball really need a $65 million stadium? I'm sure they could have built a very nice $50 million stadium and given another $15 million towards football.

I'm very glad football is finally moving in the right direction when it comes to facilities and support staff, but the hesitancy of the uaa to allow football to move in that direction has been painstaking and inexcusable.

jdh5484 · Dec 23, 2021

Gator By Marriage said:
Serious question (foolish I know): Why all the hate for baseball? (It seems pretty widespread, so this is not directed at you.). The best place to build the new football facility is next to the practice fields and the IPF, as well as close to BHG. The problem was McKethan was occupying the ideal spot.

I don’t see another solution other than building a new baseball stadium in a different part of campus. (Unless of course some wanted to drop baseball.) Did UF decide to spend a lot and build a nice ball park? Sure sounds like it. (I’ve not been there and only saw one game at the old one.) Like just about everything else that gets built on a college campus, it will never really pay for itself.

The new football facility “sounds” like it will be pretty good and they’ve left themselves space for any future additions/improvements. Next on the list is housing and they’ve already announced plans to demolish Trusler Hall - coincidentally the freshman year home of both my son and Mrs G - to build a nice athletic dorm. (The renderings look pretty cool.)

I fully agree with everybody who says it has taken way too long to accomplish these things and that the lack of top notch facilities has contributed to the lack of sustained football success over the last 10+ years - though a reasonable argument could be made that with the last three Coach M’s it might not have mattered - but why does that mean a nice baseball stadium is a bad thing? (I’ve only driven past it but the relatively new softball stadium looks pretty nice too.)

Football is what pays for everything else and at UF, and every D1 school really, it should be the top priority, but sometimes certain factors beyond anyones control will cause it to have to wait to get what they want.

Sometimes we just need to blame someone/something. I blame the piss poor facilities on baseball because, well, they were standing too close when I needed someone/something to blame.
:)

I don't know how much baseball brings in, how much other comparable parks cost, if it was needed or not , what the fan base is etc.

They were standing too close so they get the hate.

:lol:

(ps ... Great post ... but don't take anything I post seriously... except GIFs ... which are mostly based on facts)

78 · Dec 23, 2021

jdh5484 said:
Sometimes we just need to blame someone/something. I blame the piss poor facilities on baseball because, well, they were standing too close when I needed someone/something to blame.
:)

I don't know how much baseball brings in, how much other comparable parks cost, if it was needed or not , what the fan base is etc.

They were standing too close so they get the hate.

(ps ... Great post ... but don't take anything I post seriously... except GIFs ... which a mostly based on facts)

gator1946 · Dec 23, 2021

Whether or not we should have built it is one thing. Bang for the buck doesn't seem too bad:

Jacksonville's ball park, built in 2002 for 34M. Seats 6,000.

UF's empty ballpark is 2021 Ballpark of the Year

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