Irvine’s Anteater Stadium Getting Ready for Bright New Look

Late Sunday afternoon, six new, shiny aluminum poles topped with banks of lights glistened in the sky as they towered over UC Irvine’s 2,500-seat Anteater Stadium, which is located on a mesa overlooking University Avenue.

Thick, black electrical wires poked from the bases of the poles, signaling that workers are close to finishing a beacon in the ambitious plans of Athletic Director Dan Guerrero to modernize the Anteaters’ athletic landscape.

The first night event is expected to be Oct. 6, when Irvine hosts a women’s soccer match with Boise State at 7. The university has promised that the lights will be spectacular. Paul Hope, Irvine assistant athletic director for facilities, said the poles, which range in height from 90 to 120 feet, carry a total of 122 fixtures expected to provide 100 lumen per square foot.

“That is like some of your bigger stadiums, like the Rose Bowl or Coliseum,” Hope said. “Those are extremely bright lights.”

The adjacent Anteater baseball diamond, converted to host soccer matches eight years ago when baseball was dropped, has 50 lumen per square foot, Hope said. Irvine is reviving baseball in 2002 and Hope said that the first phase of a $9-million renovation at that field, expected to begin in mid-November, also includes new lighting.

Meanwhile, at the other end of campus and adjacent to the 85,000-square foot Anteater Recreation Center that opened in January, planning is moving forward on a 35-acre outdoor recreation complex. Jill Schindele, director of campus recreation, said about 20 acres will be configured to include as many as six softball fields, five flag football fields, six soccer fields and fields for rugby and lacrosse. Other plans include two outdoor basketball courts, a roller hockey rink, six tennis courts and a military-style rope obstacle course.

Schindele hopes to have the outdoor complex open a year from now. Hope said that its completion will take heat off of the current grounds adjacent to Crawford Hall. That area has had a lot of wear and tear as a site of campus intramural contests, youth soccer tournaments and three weeks of USC football practices each August.

Funding for new projects was made possible in part when students passed a referendum in May, 1998, to tax themselves to build better campus athletic and recreational facilities.

UNDERPLAYED

Thursday afternoon might have been one of the few times that a college athletic department has downplayed its attendance figures.

While the crowd of 1,545 for the Irvine-UCLA men’s soccer game surpassed the previous record soccer crowd at Anteater Stadium by almost 400, the actual count might have been higher. The 2,500-seat stadium appeared at least 80% full.

Whatever the actual size of the crowd, UC Irvine Coach George Kuntz and his players were happy to see it. After the Anteaters’ 2-1 overtime loss to the top-ranked Bruins, the players walked across the field in a line and bowed to the crowd.

“That’s the 12th man right there,” Kuntz said. “We’ve had tremendous student-body support. That’s a great crowd for a 4:30 start.”

The game was originally scheduled to begin at 7:30, but installation of the lights has been behind schedule.

“When the lights come up, those gaps in the stands will be filled in,” Kuntz said.

NOTABLE

Concordia’s women’s volleyball team, which hosts Point Loma Nazarene tonight, is 13-4, the best start in school history. The Vanguard women’s volleyball team is off to an 0-9 start. . . .Irvine (6-3, 1-1) has a better Big West Conference record in women’s volleyball than Long Beach State (8-3, 0-2) for the first time in history. The Anteaters, who have not defeated the No. 13 49ers since 1983, play at Long Beach State on Wednesday. . . The Long Beach State women’s soccer team, which includes 12 players from Orange County, opened 3-0-1, but has since lost five consecutive matches. . .Duncan Oughton of the Cal State Fullerton men’s soccer team was selected the most outstanding player on offense in the Husky Classic last weekend at Washington.

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Staff writers Lon Eubanks and Dave McKibben contributed to this report.