Spectate At Your Own Risk

Finding a place to sit has become a challenge at the baseball and softball fields for both the players and fans.

There are no bleachers at either field for spectators to use, which has caused some fans to watch the games on College Road. The baseball team played its last home games on Thursday where they were eliminated from playoff contention against the University of Maine - Farmington, so the team never had bleachers for their home games.

"It sucks," said sophomore environmental sustainability major Ben Collins, who was watching out for traffic while watching the baseball game. "It's no fun. I'm pretty scared, you know. I might get smoked by a car. It would be unfortunate if that happened to somebody."

Fellow environmental science student Mark Emerson, who was also at the game, agrees.

"This is not a safe environment," he said.

There should be bleachers on the fields for fans, but they were not brought over from the Athletic Field by maintenance, said Sports Information Director Bill Johnson.

"Why that didn't get done this year I don't know," he said.

Johnson says that there should be permanent seating for fans.

"So we don't have to keep moving things," he said. "Each venue should have its own seating, something that doesn't need to be moved, something larger than what we have."

The lack of seating not only hurts current students Johnson said, but bringing in prospective students as well.

"Right now everything about athletics is bells and whistles," he said. "The more attractive your venues are the more students you probably run the chance of getting. Athletics plays a huge role in recruitment, retention, building a community. Let's face it, probably outside of your main building what facilities get used and viewed more by the public? That is your athletic facilities."

Not having bleachers for fans is more than just a safety risk. It can keep fans from watching the games.

"If I don't have a place to sit or I didn't bring anything with me I'm probably not going to stand there for three hours," Johnson said. "If I'm coming to watch a game and enjoy a game I want to be as comfortable as possible."

The baseball players are having their own seating issues. Players sit on folding chairs next to the dugout instead of inside it. They use the chairs as a makeshift bullpen, but other players sit outside as well.

"We do have a pretty big team so sometimes it is hard to fit everybody in (the dugout)," said senior pitcher and outfielder Shane O'Donnell-Leach about the 26-man roster. "This size team could definitely use a bigger dugout."