FINE DIAMOND
Board of Regents gives OU approval to move forward with plans for new facility
The Oklahoma softball team is one step closer to having a new home.
At its Tuesday meeting, Oklahoma Board of Regents approved a proposal that will allow the Sooners to move forward with design plans for a new softball stadium.
“This will be one of the finest facilities in the country and give us a real boost in training and recruiting," OU softball head coach Patty Gasso said in a statement. "It also allows us to serve our great fans with the kind of amenities they deserve."
According to preliminary projections on OU's website, the new stadium would have a capacity of 3,000 — a significant increase from Marita Hynes' current capacity of 1,378.
The preliminary concept also includes plans for three concession stands, six restrooms and a 10,000 square-foot practice facility. There are also plans to include a training room, locker room and classroom.
“With anything we do, we have an eye on the future,” athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “If the demand continues to grow, we can add more seats to the facility. We look back at everything we did this year, and I feel very comfortable about how we have taken that success and moving forward.”
The proposed location for the facility, which is estimated to cost $22 million, is the vacant land at the northwest corner of South Jenkins Avenue and Imhoff Road. It will sit directly across Imhoff Road from the Lloyd Noble parking lot, beside the Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center.
“It’s a beautiful site, just the way that it’s actually located and positioned,” Castiglione said. “This allows us to recognize what the future might hold in terms of other changes that go on in that area and properly position it and have the same orientation that it does right now with the home plate in the southeast corner of the ballpark.”
A year ago, Castiglione announced plans to renovate the existing facility at Marita Hynes Field.
In that plan, which also included updates to L. Dale Mitchell Park, the seating bowl was going to add 929 seats to increase the infield seating capacity to 1,406.
With the outfield bleachers, the total capacity of the renovated stadium would be 2,566.
But after further investigation, the athletic department determined that it made more sense to build an entirely new structure.
“We wanted to come up with the right plan that would serve us in the long term, and after going through some evaluation of a renovation at the current site, we realized
that long-range we might not be as happy with that investment,” Castiglione said.
“It really didn’t have anything to do with the stadium itself; it’s really what we’ve learned in the long run might happen outside the stadium. The potential for widening of roads, changes of traffic patterns in that area. … Doing (the renovation) with the current stadium moves it closer to the road, which probably isn’t best in the long run. I hate to say it, but sometimes it just comes down to common sense.”
The approval of the
design phase of the project comes in the midst of OU president-designate James Gallogly’s initiative to pull OU’s Norman Campus out of a significant amount of debt. Gallogly began OU’s portion of the Board of Regents meeting with an impassioned introduction that focused on his desire to reduce the campus’ $1 billion debt by cutting back on some of the building projects.
But, Castiglione noted, the new softball facility will be paid for entirely by private donations.
“We just feel like in the long run, it’s the best decision,” Castiglione said. “Anything that we do will have to be supported by private dollars. We have been out there already seeing prospective donors and trying to generate some interest for it. There certainly is a lot of interest around the sport of softball.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, two OU assistant softball coaches also received raises. Pitching coach Melyssa Lombardi received a $7,000 raise, giving her a $192,000 annual salary. Assistant coach J.T. Gasso was given a $5,000 raise for a $130,000 annual salary.