Stadium news

The area media got a tour of Aggie Stadium on Friday from associate athletic director Bob Bullis. Here he is showing off the working media room, where The Enterprise will be stationed for fall Sundays in the foreseeable future. You cannot imagine how excited I am not to have to cover another season in Toomey. I imagine longtime Aggie fans have plenty of happy memories over at 5th and A, but from my perspective, it just wasn't comfortable.

One bit of news to come out of the tour, UCD's sideline has been moved to the near side, meaning it will be closest to the press box. During much of the planning phase, the team was supposed to be on the far side in front of the students for sportsmanship reasons. Many in the football program wanted to be on the near side in order to be in the shade, much like at Toomey. But that has, apparently, changed. For the record, the media pack walked the field at around 2:15 on Friday afternoon and there was no shade anywhere. Adjusting for the shorter days, I'm still not convinced the Ags or Western Washington will have any sort of break from the sun on Sept. 1. I did see some large fans on the sidelines during the scrimmage, and I assume those will be employed to keep everyone cool during the hot days.

Picnic Day in the rain

Today's UC Davis-Cal State Fullerton baseball game on Saturday has been postponed by rain. The teams will play a doubleheader Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Both games will be scheduled for nine innings, but the second one likely will be curfewed because the Titans have a 7:30 p.m. flight back home.

Meanwhile, the Aggie football team practiced in the rain over at Aggie Stadium. I wasn't there, but reports are that the artificial turf held up especially well. UCD associate athletic director Bob Bullis said he didn't see any players slip. In fact, he said, the only thing that was really slick was the ball. It's probably good for UCD to see to see how the field works in bad weather. That could come in handy, say, during next year's playoffs.

If anyone was at the practice and had any observations on the stadium please feel free to post them here.

More stadium

In true blogging fashion, I led with opinion Sunday on the lights questions. Here are some facts that didn't make Monday's stadium story (which was not posted over at davisenterprise.com; you web-only readers really only get about a quarter of what we write about UCD sports) for space reasons.

Athletic director Greg Warzecka told me Sunday they were close to a decision on lights. There is a committee trying to find the requisite money to pay for stadium lights. Warzecka is a cautious guy in his public statements, so that, as well as other things I've heard, suggests there are positive developments. No one has shared those developments with me. It's probably a little better than 50-50 that there are lights at some point this year.

Should lights be approved, associate athletic director Bob Bullis estimated it would take four months from the opening of bidding to the completion of installation. If you've followed the whole construction process, you'll know that amounts to a blink of the eye. The opening game is Sept. 1 against Western Washington, so the math on that is not complex. The good news is that stadium is already wired electrically for lights, so the necessary outlets are already built into the stadium infrastructure. That will speed the process. If UCD is forced to play afternoon games in September, I'm told that one thing they can do is run the sprinkler system (I know, sprinklers for an artifical field) over the playing surface just before game time. A splash of water apparently resets the temperature on the playing surface. The field drains really quickly, so that's not really a concern.

Opening day at Aggie Stadium

The UC Davis lacrosse team opened Aggie Stadium today with a resounding 17-5 victory over Saint Mary's. Below are some photos from the first competitive event in the new $30 million facility. For all the reaction, check out Monday's Enterprise. These photos are from Davis Enterprise staffer (and noted lacrosse enthusiast) Wayne Tilcock.

UC Davis' Megan O'Connor takes the opening draw against Saint Mary's Abbie Coleman.

Eri Ichikawa (8) takes a shot in the second half. This sort of shows how the scoreboard towers over the stadium.

The crowd was announced as 352, which senior Megan O'Connor said was the biggest in her time at UCD.

I watched the first half of the game from the field. It's a pretty impressive view from down there, in that all you can see is the stadium around you (The Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building, upon which the webcam is mounted, is the only non-stadium building you can see from the field). The sound inside is pretty incredible. Standing with staff writer Conor Tekautz against the East wall, we could hear the officials make calls from the other side of the field. The place is going to be extremely noisy when construction is complete and there are 12,000 people there for the Cal Poly game. It's exciting.

In the coming weeks, administrators will make a decision on lights. The opinion here -- and given my selfish deadline-driven preference for day games, it gives me no pleasure to say this -- is that lights aren't optional. This was a mild morning, but, if you click on the top photo you can see the heat waves coming off the field. The climate on the field and the climate in the stands are different. It's almost like getting into your car in Oakland and exiting it in Davis. Today it wasn't so bad. But at 1 p.m. in early September, it could approach 120 degrees at field level. There's a reason why UCD usually plays its early-season games at 6 p.m.

Breaking: New stadium opens this weekend

UC Davis athletic director Bob Bullis said today he expects to hold Sunday's lacrosse game against Saint Mary's in the $30 million new facility.

Check Thursday's Enterprise for more information.