Bear Stadium is a baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 venue in Conway

Conway, Arkansas

Conway is the county seat of Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 58,908 at the 2010 census, making Conway the seventh most populous city in Arkansas. It is a principal city of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area which had...

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is home to the Central Arkansas

University of Central Arkansas

The University of Central Arkansas is a state-run institution located in the city of Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, north of Little Rock and is the fourth largest university by enrollment in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and the third largest college system in the state. The school is most...

 Bears

Central Arkansas Bears

The University of Central Arkansas participates in 14 NCAA Division I Varsity Sports and one Football Championship Subdivision , supported by the efforts of a diverse group of over 400 male and female student-athletes...

 college baseball

College baseball

College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...

 team of the NCAA's

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 Division I Southland Conference

Southland Conference

The Southland Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the south central United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision...

. Rebuilt in 2009, the facility has a capacity of 1,000 spectators.

Renovations

After the Bears' 2007 move to Division I, the UCA baseball facility was rebuilt to be appropriate to the new playing level. In the offseason between 2008 and 2009, the old facility was demolished and construction on the present one began.

The newly-constructed ballpark, Bear Stadium, featured 106 chairbacks (part of a 1,000-spectator grandstand), press box

Press box

The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box. In general, newspaper writers sit in this box and write about the on-field event as it unfolds...

, wheelchair

Wheelchair

A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...

 elevator, concourse, and backstop. Following the 2010 season, a GeoGreen artificial turf

Artificial turf

Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...

 surface was installed and the playing surface was raised.

Events

The stadium's first game was on February 20, 2009, when Central Arkansas defeated Tennessee-Martin

University of Tennessee at Martin

The University of Tennessee at Martin is a campus in the University of Tennessee system. Other campuses include the flagship campus in Knoxville, the Chattanooga campus, the Center for the Health Sciences in Memphis, and the Space Institute in Tullahoma...

 11-5. In 2010, Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Goose Gossage

Goose Gossage

Richard Michael "Goose" Gossage is a former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher. During a 22-year baseball career, he pitched from 1972-1994 for nine different teams, spending his best years with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. The nickname "Goose" is a play on his surname...

 threw out the first pitch before a Bears game against Northwestern State

Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...

. In 2011, the field hosted the Arkansas high school baseball

Amateur baseball in the United States

Amateur baseball is a form of baseball in which the players either are not paid for playing, or receive only a modest stipend or employment arranged by the team's boosters...

championships.

Attendance

The stadium's first game, held on February 20, 2009, attracted 517 spectators. A record 732 people attended the April 3, 2009, game against Texas State, the day of the stadium's official dedication.

Top 10 attendance marks

Below is a list of Bear Stadium's 10 best-attended games.

Rk.	Date	Opponent	Attendance
1	April 3, 2009	Texas State	732
2	February 18, 2011	SIU Edwardsville	527
3	February 20, 2009	Tennessee-Martin	517
4	March 12, 2010	Stephen F. Austin	503
5	February 26, 2011	Eastern Illinois	484
6	February 20, 2011	SIU Edwardsville	475
7	February 19, 2011	SIU Edwardsville	447
8	February 20, 2007	Arkansas State	432
9	April 9, 2011	Texas State	427
10	April 8, 2011	Texas State	424

As of the 2011 season.

External links

• Bear Stadium Gallery at Arkansas Diamonds