UALR AD Chasse Conque announces donation of land.

UALR announced Wednesday a gift that its athletic department hopes will one day put each of its teams in on-campus homes.

Construction could be years away, but it would complete a project that began six years ago.

The univers i ty said Wednesday that members of the Coleman family, longtime owners of the former Coleman Dairy, have donated nearly 8 acres of land to UALR, which has intentions of building a new baseball stadium and fieldhouse to be used by various sports. The land is located on the southern edge of UALR’s campus, south of the Coleman Sports & Recreation Complex that houses its soccer and track and field teams, and built on land the Colemans donated in 2010.

UALR Athletic Director Chasse Conque declined to set a completion date or price — or even a target groundbreaking date — for the facility he said will be built largely with private funds.

“It just gets the conversation started,” Conque said. “If it wasn’t for this land, we couldn’t go any further.”

The project is an adjustment to an original idea that took shape in 2010 when the Colemans donated 10 acres of land to build a soccer and track and field complex. UALR began playing soccer there in 2012 and hosted its first track and field meet there in 2014. Conque said last year that there was a need for a fieldhouse for lockers and coaches’ offices for those sports, golf and cross country.

Baseball Coach Chris Curry then talked with the Colemans, one of whom Curry played youth baseball with while growing up in Conway.

“It was kind of drawn out on a napkin at a basketball game last year,” Curry said.

Once baseball got involved, Conque said the fieldhouse was put on hold. Now the fieldhouse will be built just southeast of the soccer and track and field complex and house all of baseball, cross country, soccer and track and field. Conque said the fieldhouse will be constructed before the baseball park.

“We wanted to do things for those sports that are out there and compete and practice out there already,” Conque said. “But, you know, it’s an arms race in college athletics.”

Conque and Curry said they have few complaints with Gary Hogan Field, UALR’s home field since the 1970s, which is located at cityowned Curran Conway Park. The location includes coaches offices, lockers and an indoor facility that includes weights and a training room. But Conque said UALR sees a benefit in putting all of its sports on campus, and Curry said Gary Hogan Field has probably “hit its ceiling” with regard to improvements.

“Having a little bit of a tighter footprint, that’s important to me, and that’s what makes that space on South University attractive,” Conque said.

Curry said he’ll work with Conque and designers — UALR has hired Little Rockbased Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, Conque said — for park specifications. He said he’d like for the park to be able to host an NCAA regional tournament.

“I want to have a program that immediately jumps in, facility-wise, to the top tier of the Sun Belt Conference,” Curry said. “A facility that gives us everything that we need. One that has room to grow, and one that is weather friendly, where we don’t lose any games.”