SFA Rejects new facilities

[Lightning/Eagle]

The following was in the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel today.

By TYESHA BOUDREAUX

The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The proposed Bo Pilgrim Ballpark struck out at Tuesday's SFA board of regents meeting when university President Dr. Baker Pattillo recommended that the facility should not be completed because of a lack of funding for the project.

"I recommend that this project should not go any further," Pattillo said, while addressing the board.

The estimated cost to build the ballpark is about $14 million, and 25 percent of that — $3.5 million — should have been raised through private donations during the fundraising months, which kicked off in November 2006 and ended in December 2007.

At of the end of 2007, about $1.94 million in gifts and pledges for the ballpark had been raised, which is about $1.56 million less than what was originally projected as the goal for the private donations.

Pattillo said he consulted numerous individuals, including "people in Austin," and he did not believe that the project would be approved in Austin (by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board) because of the lack of "dedicated revenue."

"The athletic director (Robert Hill) will notify the coach, players and parents." Pattillo said.

People who donated money to the ballpark will also be contacted, thanked for supporting the ballpark and offered refunds, Pattillo said.

"At the time (the ballpark was approved) everyone felt like it would be successful," Pattillo said. " ... perhaps some time in the future."

He also said that "work will begin" to see what can be done to improve the fields that both the SFA baseball and softball teams currently use, which is the Nacogdoches City Complex on West Loop 224.

Hill said he will also work with the city of Nacogdoches and a local baseball association to see what can be done to improve the current facility.

"Obviously anytime you have an ambitious project that you want to happen and then it doesn't, there's some disappointment to that," Hill said. "What we had, what we collected and what our goal was, we couldn't close the gap."

Before Pattillo made his recommendation, Terry Lehmann, a parent of an SFA baseball player, addresses the board during the public hearing segment of the meeting.

She said one of the main reasons her son committed to play baseball at SFA was because he was told that a stadium would be built in two years.

She also said that "false promises" were made to the baseball players to get them to commit to SFA.

"You (regents) can make a big step in the right direction by approving the ballpark," Lehmann said.

Lehmann said she met with Pattillo in November and that "he emphasized that he was not consulted before baseball was brought back (to the university in 2004)."

"That was a strong impression on how he felt about baseball," Lehmann said.

After hearing Pattillo's recommendation, Lehmann said, "it would have been nice if they would have chose to honor their commitments."

"SFA's integrity is at stake here," Lehmann said.

[MrsT12]

This was joint project between baseball and softball.  They fired the softball coach in the middle of the fundraising.  I know they were working really hard to see this work.  It's a shame because the fields they use are miles away from the campus at a little league facility.  Football would never be treated like that!!!

[Guest etbu]

Sfa has alot of problems right now and they have had many of the head knockers either quit or get fired in the last year or so.