Florida Atlantic Baseball has shown no indication of creating an in-stadium locker room, while conference opponents are renovating their facilities, a difference that could factor into player recruiting.
In the American Conference, schools like Rice University, the University of South Florida, and Tulane University have either adjacent or in-stadium locker rooms. According to Joe Tremplin, Director of Strategic Communications for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the university plans to upgrade its ‘clubhouse,’ which will also include renovated locker rooms.
However, FAU is making minor renovations and has assets that most conference opponents don’t have, including two full-sized baseball fields.
The concept of player recruiting has changed in college baseball, while FAU recruiting coordinator Michael Cleary thinks differently. “The locker room is never a selling piece for us,” Cleary wrote in an email to the University Press. “We do not want players to come here because of the facilities; we want them to come because it is a great fit.”
Conference opponents such as Tulane and Rice view facilities as a major factor in recruiting. Maddie Watkins, Tulane Associate Director of Facilities and Event Management, oversees Tulane’s baseball facilities and game operations.
“When recruiting, we want prospective student-athletes to be able to see themselves playing at our facility, utilizing our practice facilities, and being comfortable in our locker rooms,” Watkins wrote. “We pride ourselves on making our facilities of a professional grade, but also a place where they feel at home.”
Rice has had an in-stadium locker room for over 25 years and has renovated the facilities over that time. In 2023, the university’s Board of Trustees approved projects as part of the Capital Excellence Initiative to address maintenance issues, including new HVAC units, a fire sprinkler system, replacement of electrical infrastructure and lighting, a new code-compliant elevator, and new interior finishes.
Rice Communications Director Chuck Pool Jr., who has been at Rice for over 20 years states that baseball facilities have been an important factor in recruiting for a long time, not just recently.
Pool wrote to the University Press that some of Rice’s old facilities at the time were working against them in recruiting. According to an article by Services for Education (SSC), facilities were viewed as functional necessities and renovated when possible. Today, institutions use facilities as strategic assets that influence multiple outcomes in athletics.
Legend Custom Lockers, an organization that designs and builds custom locker room environments for Division I sports teams, agreed with this. The National Sales Director, Grace Parker, says the main goal is to create spaces that actually work for athletes and also feel elevated.
“It’s not just throwing lockers in a room, it’s thinking through how the space is used every day,” Parker says. “Locker rooms are not the main reason someone chooses a school, but it absolutely plays into first impressions.”
In baseball, Parker says many programs don’t have full stadium setups, so the locker room becomes even more important. “This also reflects on the team culture; if the players have a place they can go hang out together and make it feel like their second home, then the team culture grows.”
Aaron Albers, a 2014 FAU graduate and independent FAU beat writer, stated that because the university has multiple revenue sports such as basketball and football, it’s not easy to fund sports like baseball. “If you’re a school like Wichita State, where they don’t have a football program, you can put more money into other revenue sports,” Albers said.
Albers published an article on Dec. 5, 2022, titled “FAU Athletics Facilities grades,” on the FAU Beat, giving FAU Baseball Stadium a ‘C-.’
“FAU baseball for years has been one of the most successful sports on campus, yet the stadium they play in is largely still an upgraded high school facility,” Albers wrote in the article.
FAU may have a baseball program, but much more money is invested in basketball and football. The largest gift to baseball was an anonymous $1 million donation made in 2021. Football received a $16 million gift from Richard Schmidt in 2014, which created the Schmidt Family Complex.
After the gift, former FAU football head coach Charlie Partridge told the Sun Sentinel that the new complex will attract recruits to the program.
The stakes around facilities extend beyond the American Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats, a Power 5 program, are trying to find every way possible to improve recruiting. Kentucky recently made its athletic department a Limited Liability Company (LLC), which is a corporate structure that protects its owners from being personally pursued for repayment of the company’s debts or liabilities.
FAU may not turn to this anytime soon, but it shows the lengths other universities will go to maximize their athletic programs. Yet, even with conference opponents and other teams improving their facilities, FAU finds its facilities adequate.
“We are fortunate that our locker room is such a big space,” Cleary says. “The spaces we have in the Oxley center would be right in line with any of the other programs in the conference.”
Anthony Ortiz is a Reporter for the University Press. Email him at [email protected] or DM on Instagram @ajortiz_38 for more information on these and other stories.
