Hurricane Gustav still haunts the LSU soccer stadium. A temporary, makeshift set of bleachers is a result of the storm which struck Baton Rouge more than a year ago.”It looked like a tornado came through, and there were bleachers all mangled in the middle of the field,” said team spokesman Will Stafford.Stafford said the current set of stands doesn’t extend as far as the stands in previous years.”In the past, we had stands in front of the press box immediately to the left and right of the press box, extended all the way down to both sides,” Stafford said.Eddie Nunez, associate athletic director for operations and project development, said reconstructing the bleachers from last year would be unrealistic by the beginning of this season. A brand new set of bleachers should be in place by next season.”The next phase that will happen at the end of the season is replacing the bleachers we have with the new bleachers to mirror what we had last year,” Nunez said. “If we’re fortunate to raise the money this year, we’ll come back and continue the addition and have a whole secondary set of bleachers behind it with a new press box and really dress it up.”LSU coach Brian Lee said the new seats next season could provide a major change in LSU’s home atmosphere.”This [stadium] kind of makes you chuckle a little bit just because it’s so hodgepodge,” Lee said. “But the staff has done the best job they can given the circumstance.” Nunez said LSU has a unique advantage of fan proximity, which enhances the experience for the athletes.But there is such thing as being too close. Some universities adopted the idea to put stands behind the goals.”At South Florida they had it,” Lee said. “It creates a lot of atmosphere but also opens up to inappropriate action.”Inappropriate action reared its ugly head in an incident years ago at Kentucky when George Fotopoulos was LSU’s coach.Fotopoulos said there were benches behind the goals at Kentucky with no security, and a male Kentucky soccer player urinated in an LSU player’s water bottle.”It was one of the worst acts of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen by an individual or an institution,” Fotopoulos said.Fotopoulos found it despicable nobody did anything to stop the act.”It was awful,” he said. “All the Kentucky players were behind the goal, and their coach was at the game, and their administrators were there, and they did nothing. It was very disturbing, very disheartening. We filed a grievance with the SEC, and nothing came of it. It was definitely disappointing. To be able to get that close to a player’s water bottle — that’s pretty disgusting.”Fotopoulos said he is concerned with the safety issues of having fans so close to the field.”The safety of the student athletes is now more important than ever with stalkers and crazy fans,” he said. “We’re playing the SEC. We’re not playing in some kind of co-ed rec league.”LSU’s stadium may not be state-of-the-art, but the players and coaches can live with it for the remainder of the season.Senior midfielder Malorie Rutledge said although at times the stadium may not have enough seats spectators, it’s not hurting fan attendance.”Instead of people sitting in the extra set of bleachers, they’re standing in front of the press box,” Rutledge said. “I feel like it’s not limiting the people coming. They’re still coming, and they’re still staying.”Lee said the crowd is rowdy and the games are intense no matter what the setup is.”Our atmosphere is as good as anybody in the country regardless of how the stands are set up,” Lee said.–Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]