Softball fever grips state of Oklahoma
NORMAN, Okla. – Two hours before first pitch Friday, the line of people stretches about 150 strong, beyond the left-field wall of Marita Hynes Field in Norman. The heat has risen to the mid-80s, and Oklahoma Sooners softball fans are not happy.
“It’s 2 o’clock,” they yell at the ushers waiting to scan tickets and check bags. “They’re letting people in.”
Indeed, around the corner, another gate at the home of Oklahoma softball has opened, which means some fans already are scrambling to the general admission bleachers beyond the outfield. Sooners, if you will.
Don Grace, a 10-year Oklahoma season ticket-holder from Watonga, has been waiting in line since noon to make sure he gets his desired spot, at the top of the bleachers in left-center. Good news: Grace indeed staked his claim for Oklahoma’s super-regional opener against Central Florida.
Grace describes himself as a donor, with season ticket seats in the main grandstands for the regular season, but those aren’t guaranteed for the NCAA playoffs, so he usually gets dispatched to the bleachers.
Grace doesn’t mind too much. “I like sitting here,” Grace said. “I just don’t like waiting two hours to get it.” Softball fervor has gripped the state. The top-ranked Sooners are a runaway hype machine, both nationally and locally. Patty Gasso’s squad likely is the second-most popular team on campus, at least judging by internet metrics. Oklahoma reached the Women’s College World Series by sweeping Central Florida, capped by a 7-1 victory Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma State Cowgirls also are bound for the World Series, having completed a two-game sweep of Clemson with a 5-1 super-regional victory Friday night in Stillwater, where Oklahoma State had its own ticket-demand issues.
It’s a common refrain in Oklahoma. USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium hosts the WCWS this week for the 32nd time in 33 years, courtesy of a variety of expansions and renovations that now gives the iconic venue a capacity of 13,000. Sellouts are the norm for the tournament that starts Thursday.
In Norman, Marita Hynes Field, which opened in 1998, lists a capacity of 1,520 but jammed in 1,659 Friday.
Relief is coming. Oklahoma is expected to break ground this summer on Love’s Field, a few hundred yards south of the current stadium.
“Long overdue,” said Oklahoma fan Nancy Howard of Norman, who managed to get a $75 all-session ticket for the super regional but often struggles to find a way into the park. She’s paid as much as $60 for a regular-season game, using the resale market.
Oklahoma softball mania is rising rapidly. The Sooners hosted four games over three days at Hall of Fame Stadium in March. They drew 4,718 on a Friday night for Indiana; 4,936 for Saturday games against San Diego State and Houston; then 3,246 for an 11:30 a.m. Sunday game against Iowa.
“Great problem to have,” said Toby Baldwin, Oklahoma’s director of compliance and the administrator for Sooner softball. “Softball sellouts are becoming a regular thing around the nation.”
The Sooners were a phenomenon far beyond state borders this season. Fans climbed trees to see them play in California and watched from parking garages in Hawaii.
The softball fever has spread to Stillwater, where the same symptoms are found: overflow crowds, waiting lists for season tickets, a need for a new home.
“We’d love for them to have a new stadium,” said Jennifer Hamilton, an Oklahoma State fan from Broken Arrow who drove over with her husband to watch the Cowgirls play Clemson. They were part of the crowd listed at 1,384. The Hamiltons spent a year on a waiting list before securing season tickets at Cowgirl Stadium, which including standing room accommodates only about 1,265.
“These are high-class problems,” said Jesse Martin, Oklahoma State’s senior associate athletic director for external affairs.
Oklahoma State, like Oklahoma, has worked to accommodate the demand with a variety of innovations. Standingroom only tickets. A free festival beyond the outfield walls, where fans can watch the game on a big screen, partake of food truck options and hear the sounds from the ballpark while mingling with others on the wrong side of the ticket demand. And while Oklahoma has resorted to ticketed bleachers within the park and just beyond the outfield walls, Oklahoma State has gone to virtual party decks, which have become quite popular and from which fans can good-naturedly (hopefully) interact with opposing outfielders.
Martin likens the atmosphere at Oklahoma State softball to the intimate feel of old Gallagher-Iba Arena, with everyone close and everyone engaged. “It’s almost like ‘Cheers,’ ” the TV sitcom from decades ago. “Everybody knows your name, and they’re glad you came.”
But Oklahoma State knows the ultimate answer is the same answer found in Norman. A new stadium.
The Sooners’ Love’s Field will seat 3,000, with the capacity to expand and pack in more when demand arrives. It’s not crazy to believe the Sooners could have sold 8,000 tickets for the super regional closeout game Saturday.
Oklahoma State has plans for a new stadium, with the likely location just south of Cowgirl Stadium, where baseball’s abandoned Reynolds Stadium sits deteriorating.
“We know we need this,” said Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski, who has the Cowgirls in their third straight WCWS. “We have a lot of people that just don’t come now, because they know it’s impossible to get inside.”
Gajewski knows a new stadium is at least a few years away and knows relieving the ticket demand is going to be incremental.
“Just baby steps,” Gajewski said. “It’s hard, because you don’t want to invest too much, knowing you’re going to be tearing this thing down. But you gotta keep going until that time. It’s kind of the cost of doing business here.”
Kind of the cost of doing softball business anywhere. The sport is exploding. On ESPN. In ballparks. With marketing.
It seems quite likely that softball’s fan bonanza is not a fad.
“I think softball across the board has done a remarkable job of catering to their audience,” said retired Oklahoma administrator Kenny Mossman, who spent many years overseeing Sooner softball and now pastors the First Baptist Church of Carnegie. “It’s never gotten too big to interface with the little boy or little girl. Always communicated openly with their fan base.”
Mossman recalls the common sight at the World Series, where even members of the losing team join an autograph session for fans. You don’t see that out of Kentucky or Duke basketball at the Final Four.
“Who else does that?” Mossman said. “The TV numbers are very good. That’s usually a precursor for how well a sport’s going to do … the sport’s still growing. Don’t know that we can pinpoint where it will land.”
Of course, Patty Gasso is not always going to have a team for the ages. Gajewski’s Cowgirls aren’t going to the World Series literally every year.
The ticket demand might fade. But it hasn’t faded at the World Series, which has a national following and a festive atmosphere and long lines for everything from getting into the park to signing autographs to buying roasted corn from the food trucks.
Be on time, World Series ushers. Softball fans are watching the clock.