Matt Roan has plans for athletic facility renovations

February 9, 2017

Nicholls State University Director of Athletics Matt Roan has plans to revamp the athletic program with new facilities.

“I think our vision is to be the provider of a model student athlete experience and a point of pride for that region,” Roan said. “For me, if we’re going to have a vision, it needs to be a bold one. [We want] to become the economic, cultural and intellectual heart of the bayou region.”

Although he hasn’t held his position for a full semester yet, Roan has begun to look ahead to future projects, including the building of a new baseball field house and replacing the grandstand seats.

Among other improvements, Roan wants to add an LED video board inside the stadium to add to the fan experience.

“College athletics, in a lot of ways, is a facilities arms race,” Roan said. “One of the things that’s important to me is how do we do something everything single year to every one of our programs in terms of their athletic facilities?”

Roan said he wants students to attend athletic events and support their teams, who tend to play better with a full crowd cheering them on.

“When you have that empty student section, there’s obviously a void, and there’s something that’s missing,” Roan said. “We want to make sure we have the best student sections at every one of our games.”

Roan said that the students are typically good supporters, but having even more of them out at games could make it easier to get projects put in motion.

“I think you vote with your feet,” Roan said. “If we can fill [the stadiums] with students, then we’ll have a problem and we’ll have to look at expanding and doing those types of things.”

Roan spoke on the vision he and the athletics department have shared for the upcoming renovations.

“Any time you want to make improvements at our level, you would hope that you might have the opportunity for it to be a state-funded project as part of the capital outlay process,” Roan said. “Whether it’s corporate partners or private individuals, we want to try to make these dreams a reality.”

Nicholls Vice President of Finance and Administration Terry Braud said he has shared the same sentiments as Roan, and is confident in how the program has been run thus far.

“The athletic program is headed in a very positive direction right now, and I think everybody’s starting to kind of feel that energy and wants to be part of it,” Braud said. “We certainly want to enhance the fan experience to equal other universities of our size.”

Braud said one of the best things that can happen is that the students on campus take initiative to attend games and bring new ideas to the table.

“The bottom line is to get involved, and don’t be afraid to present ideas,” Braud said. “We are all here to write the same story, and at the end of the day if we leave Nicholls just a little bit better than how we found it when we got here, then that’s a win.”

Braud said that making renovations requires a collective team effort, and that if there are needs in the student athlete community, he will work towards meeting those needs.

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