Exciting talk and rumors have spread recently about the Athletic Department’s upcoming projects and potential upgrades of current facilities. Many students have already started to speculate on which facilities are in need of the greatest improvement. Jake Chenitz ‘15 comments, “The baseball field is one of the worst baseball fields to play on in Minnesota because of its outdated design. It’s an embarrassment to call it a varsity baseball field.” Meanwhile, Michael Broucek ‘15 argues, ”The Aamoth field is probably the most crucial to update because the grass isn’t in very good shape. I would like to either re-sod the field with new grass or get turf.” Eric Elftmann ‘17 thinks that “the rink needs to be updated.” It’s clear that there is a demand among student athletes for new facilities. Yet, such projects cannot be pursued without a sufficient amount of funding and support.
Beside from the questions of funding and support, the Athletic Department wants to ensure that any project is a substantial and worthwhile investment. Athletic Director Nick Rathmann emphasizes, “We need facilities that can keep us current. We are outplaying our facilities right now. A turf field would be used nonstop. We only had 34 events on that field last year. I estimate that with a turf field we have over 130. Right now, we are not eligible to host a section final for lacrosse unless our field is updated to artificial turf.” A turf field would certainly be a substantial investment.
That being said, the various projects, from the field to new tennis courts, can’t be made official until there is sufficient backing, both financially and publicly. Rathmann highlights this, stating, “What’s actually going to happen is determined by when we raise the money to do so. At this time there is nothing that we are officially building.”
