Monday, August 25, 2008
No longer will bystanders wanting to watch football practice be able to stand on Mississippi Street and get a clear view. Soon, the only way to see the action on the new practice fields will be to climb a tree.
The Athletics Department announced on Friday that it is paying $90,000 to have 100 pine trees installed around the fields to help hide the team while it practices.
“I think it will help tremendously to reduce the likelihood of distractions,” said Jim Marchiony, Associate Athletics Director. “We had discussions with the football office and they wanted to be able to practice in an atmosphere that was more conducive to less distractions.”
Map courtesy of KU
KANSAN
The trees are the result of a collaboration between the football office and athletics department, which were working for a solution to conceal the practice fields from people watching.
The 10- to 20-foot-high pine trees will start to arrive sometime this week and will be planted along Mississippi Street, the north side of parking lot 91 and the west side of the practice fields.
At an alumni kickoff rally in Prairie Village on Friday evening, Football coach Mark Mangino spoke about the field issue.
“I’m not at all concerned about that kind of stuff,” Mangino said. “I think it’s a tempest in a teapot. Much ado about nothing. I’m not concerned about it at all. You can probably find something better to write about than trees around a practice field, I would hope.”
The trees will likely block the view from Mississippi Street and some of the low-level locations, but the top floor of the parking garage and the windows of the Kansas Union will probably still provide at least a partial view of the fields.
The team began practicing on the new fields when training camp opened on Aug. 1, but fans stopped and watched practice from Mississippi Street and other areas that surrounded the field. Mangino and his staff asked onlookers to leave, but soon after, the department told them they no longer could tell anyone to leave a public street or area. The team then didn’t want to practice on the fields because the location allowed anyone to watch their plays, including people who could be spies from other teams.
The team began practicing exclusively inside of Memorial Stadium in early August so nobody could see practice, leaving two new fields empty.
The fields were part of at $31 million project to improve the University’s football training facilities by constructing a new building next to Memorial Stadium and constructing the practice fields.
— - Edited by Arthur Hur
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Comments
Football fields to be hidden by trees
Damn. I was hoping for that 2nd parking garage instead. You know, to replace all the parking spaces lost by the construction of these fields in the first place.
Note to opposing teams: "The trees will likely block the view from Mississippi Street and some of the low-level locations, but the top floor of the parking garage and the windows of the Kansas Union will probably still provide at least a partial view of the fields"
So why exactly are the trees being planted?
Football fields to be hidden by trees
Planting trees is absolutely the best possible solution to this problem. Not only is it relatively inexpensive (especially compared to building a roof), but it's environmentally friendly too. I rarely ever say this, but good job athletics!
Football fields to be hidden by trees
Good Job Athletics? This is a completely unnecessary development that was brought about because of a complete lack of prior planning.
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