Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Utsler)

Women’s soccer is a non-revenue sport at the University of Kansas, but for a team that won the Big 12 Championship in 2004, its facilities pale in comparison to that of the 2005 Big 12 Champions – Texas A&M.

Aggie Soccer Stadium, according to Texas A&M’s official athletics Web site, opened in 1994 and has a 3,000 seat capacity. The stadium also includes a press box and 500 reserved seats for fans. The scoreboard at Aggie Soccer Stadium features a color light board and statistics screen in addition to a game clock and score display. The stadium’s drainage system makes, as the Web site says, “postponements and cancellations of practices and matches all but a thing of the past.”

Kansas’ official athletics Web site makes no mention of stadium capacity, a press box, an extravagant scoreboard or a state-of-the-art drainage system.

Instead, it merely mentions that SuperTarget Field opened in 1995 and is “one of the top soccer facilities in the region.” A modest claim when high school fields are its main competition in the region.

Candace Dunback, Kansas Athletics media relations office manager, said via email that SuperTarget Field’s capacity was 1,000 before a microburst in March destroyed nearly all of the seating at the field.

Fans who attend a home Kansas soccer match will notice that, rather than a press box, there is a press table between the team benches, seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and the scoreboard is generic, at best.

SuperTarget Field’s most inconvenient characteristic, though, is its drainage system. If heavy rains hit the field, the team and its fans must usually travel to Hummer Sports Park in Topeka for games.

“That sucks because it takes away from students who would want to come by,” said Erin Ferguson, who played soccer for Kansas from 2004 to 2005. “We don’t get as much support that way. That’s also like, that (the field in Topeka) is not our field.”

About the only characteristics the two fields have in common are that each have covered team benches and are near their respective training facilities.

Off the field, Texas A&M soccer players enjoy a “spacious” locker room and a “luxurious” players’ lounge.

Kansas soccer players get the pleasure of sharing their locker room with visiting basketball teams. Jim Marchiony, Kansas associate athletics director, said the Kansas rowing team was the only other Kansas team that shared its locker room with visiting teams and didn’t know if it was common for teams around the Big 12 to share locker rooms.

“We don’t have to have the fancy stuff,” said Emily Strinden, a sophomore on the Kansas soccer team. “I guess maybe it keeps us humble, but it would be nice to have a locker room that we don’t have to share with the visiting basketball team.”

Strinden said sharing a locker room with visiting teams could be problematic. She said on one occasion a visiting coach dumped over a water jug in the locker room out of frustration for how the team was playing. Strinden said the water eventually molded and made the locker room smell for months.

Ferguson said she found sharing a locker room irritating for another reason.

“I think the main thing with that is having to have someone – whether it be a coach or one of the girls – be like, ‘Hey guys, make sure to lock all your stuff and don’t leave anything out,’ because there’s always the risk of theft,” Ferguson said.

Help may be on the way, as Marchiony said several upgrades were on the horizon for the soccer team.

First and foremost would be new bleachers to replace the ones lost this spring. Marchiony also mentioned a press box for the complex. However, the most significant upgrade Marchony mentioned was a new surface for the field, citing the current one’s draining issues.

Unfortunately for the soccer team, no timetable has been set for the resurfacing. Strinden said she thought they were next in line for an upgrade after the rowing team received a boathouse. Marchiony said the new surface wasn’t guaranteed but was important to the athletics department.

“That’s on our radar screen as something that we really want to do and we’ll look to actively fund-raise for it,” Marchiony said. “The top priority is to redo the field.”

The players may have no control over what upgrades are made or how long it takes for upgrades to come, but Ferguson said there was one thing players could do to facilitate upgrades from the department.

“I would say we’re disappointed that we don’t get enough recognition for being such a strong team, but I think that as we keep getting better, we’re going to get more stuff,” Ferguson said. “If we keep proving ourselves and keep winning, they can’t ignore us.”

Aggie Soccer Stadium official Web page: http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities.php?FID=1

Jayhawk Soccer Comples official Web page: http://kuathletics.cstv.com/facilities/kan-supertarget-field.html