Does UNK Need A Baseball/Softball Complex?

Last night on my radio show, "Double Coverage" with Josh Kaufman on 91.3 KLPR (the student radio station), a topic came up that I had never thought of before it came out of my mouth. We were discussing Loper Athletics and how much the athletic department here supports certain sports. The topic at hand was the Lopers Men's Golf Team and their first tournament of the Spring down in Arizona. It wasn't surprising to hear that after the first day the team was in 19th place out of 20 schools and being a fellow golfer and ex-member of the UNK team, I knew the first tournament of the Spring is following hardly any practice due to winter. There had always been talk of the university building a UNK golf facility, an indoor area with a couple of practice bunkers, some putting greens and maybe some other areas so that the golf teams could work on their games to compete against the schools that get to play year-round.

Well that conversation fired me off into this argument: that the UNK Athletic Department only focuses its money on a few select teams, at least it seems that way. The sports that I feel get a majority of the UNK sport budget are football, volleyball, basketball and just recently, baseball. This led Josh and I to have a conversation about where the money goes and why it isn't more spread out and going to the sports that can make this university a Division II powerhouse.

When I came to UNK in Fall of 2006, I was told by the head golf coach that he gets $7500 for the golf team for the entire year, which includes travel, practice and everything. That's hardly anything for an athletic program. Now, Josh said he doesn't see the UNK golf programs being a threat to ever compete for a Division II crown and I totally agree with the lack of funding for the program. Without a facility to practice in during the months that don't allow for play, UNK will always come out of the blocks slow during the Spring, leaving them at a disadvantage.

Needless to say, that talk led to a discussion about the baseball and softball teams struggling and Josh stated that poor fan support could be one of the key elements in their struggles. Low fan attendance equals low ticket sales which leads to budget cuts within the department for certain programs. I responded to that with a reason for low attendance being the fact that noone knows where the baseball and/or softball team plays. It's not on campus and it changes, it seems, every year. I bet half of the class or more can not give me directions on how to watch the softball team or baseball team play, except for Cody and Amanda. One thing led to another and it turned into a question of whether or not UNK needed its own baseball/softball complex?

I do believe UNK does need its own baseball/softball complex if they look to compete for an RMAC and Division II title in the forseeable future. A new complex will bring in better recruits and in a centralized location, will allow for more fans to come to the games. My idea for a potential area was the field past West Center and next to the Buckle Warehouse, with enough room for a baseball field and softball field, some bleachers...enough to build a nice facility that will be a mainstay in Loper athletics for years to come. But I know what you're asking, where is the money going to come from? Well didn't we just start a new women's soccer team? I'm not against the women's soccer team, don't get me wrong, I feel it's great that UNK is expanding its athletic horizon. My feeling is just that UNK could have done better things with the money that it would take to run a new athletic program, such as the new golf facility or go towards a new baseball complex.

I just wonder where the athletic department money goes since I know the wrestling team is mostly self-funded (except for 1.2 full-ride scholarships), the golf teams don't receive much money, swimming and diving could use some rejuvenating and other programs that could use some much needed rennovating. Now I know this is a hefty claim in an economy like the one we're in now, but somehow we found the cash to fund a new program altogether. Maybe it's cheaper than I thought, but I have a feeling that it's not. Some of my argument against the athletic department helping out its athletes was also built off of Callie's blog about her tennis roller-coaster every week.

So this is where I ask you, the viewing public and UNK students, how do you think the UNK Athletic Department treats its athletic programs? Do they all get treated equally or do others get left in the backburners for others? More importantly, I want to get a sense of how the idea of a baseball/softball complex is received by you, the UNK student body. I have a feeling that one day, this will become a reality, but it's not for sure when. If UNK wants to become a Division II power and bring in top dollar and top recruits, it needs to upgrade the programs it has now, instead of implementing new ones.

Do you think UNK could use their own baseball/softball complex in order to gain better recruits and make it easier for fans to find and attend games? I think they do and should begin looking into it as soon as possible.