O’Brate Stadium at Oklahoma State will include tailgating areas to draw on the tradition well known in college sports.oklahoma state
Two of the more high-profile college baseball programs are stepping to the plate with major ballpark projects, extending the run of investments that schools are making in the sport to generate more revenue.
Oklahoma State and Florida have new baseball complexes set to be completed this year. The ballparks feature fan and player amenities that rival some major league spring training and high-end minor league ballparks. They include suites, clubs, loge seating, picnic terraces, dedicated player development labs, luxurious locker rooms for current and former players, and high-tech nutritional and sports medicine facilities.
Oklahoma State’s O’Brate Stadium, which cost $60 million, will significantly upgrade the experience for fans of Cowboys baseball, said Josh Holliday, head coach of the baseball team.
“We were lacking some of the fan amenities that have become such a big part of going to a baseball game,” Holliday said. “We lacked parking, so fan convenience and fan access was not ideal, and we lacked some of the modern features like video boards and different seating options.”
Some of the updated seating options include a family section and a tailgating section. “We wanted to capture and build on the tailgating experience that college campuses have shown so much passion for on college football Saturdays,” Holliday said.
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To bolster family-friendly amenities, Oklahoma State will open an adjacent practice field ahead of games for children to play whiffle ball and participate in other baseball-related activities, said Payton Phillips, Oklahoma State’s associate athletic director for strategic marketing. Oklahoma State has named it Dreamers’ Diamond.
“So whether you’re an 18- or 19-year-old dreaming about dog-piling in Omaha or you’re a 13-year-old dreaming about playing for Oklahoma State, we think it will speak well to that,” Phillips added.
O’Brate Stadium will feature many seating options in the outfield. “Everything from outdoor tailgate tents to tiered berm seating to seats that hang over the top of our bullpen,” Holliday said. “They’re a little bit of a play on the Fenway Park Monster seats, so what we came up with was ultimately a really awesome college baseball facility that we think will have something for everyone.”
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The stadium and complex, which was funded in part by a major donation from oilman Cecil O’Brate, also was developed with a focus on player development. The facility includes an artificial turf infield practice area and six retractable batting tunnels.
“We have a 50-seat classroom where we’ll be able to meet with the kids on a daily basis and go over pertinent information, a state-of-the-art training room with hydrotherapy, an equipment room inside the locker room, coaches locker room, and alumni locker rooms,” Holliday added.
Holliday said he was first introduced to alumni locker rooms when he coached at Vanderbilt University.
“They had a strong core of alumni that were still playing and coming back in the winter to train,” Holliday said. “It gave them a second home and we want to have that same dynamic of former players that are actively pursuing their careers in professional baseball, to make it easy for them to come back, to finish school.”
Oklahoma State turned to Oklahoma City-based Studio Architecture to design O’Brate Stadium. The project took inspiration from venues across the country, including Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Ballpark, TD Ameritrade Park Omaha and Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.
The Gators will debut a new ballpark that nearly doubles capacity over the former venue and puts more fans in the shade.populous
Shade from the Florida sun
Added fan amenities are also a focal point at the University of Florida’s new $65 million ballpark. The facility, for now known as Florida Ballpark, is scheduled to be finished this year, with the team starting play there in 2021.
Jason Ford, a senior architect at Populous and project manager, said the new ballpark increased the amount of shaded seating, premium seating and club seating.
“What they’ve seen and what we’ve seen historically in the last couple years in college baseball is really kind of mirroring what they’re doing in minor league ballparks by having a lot of different seating types and having really strong fan amenities when it comes to concessions,” Ford said.
The ballpark will have a seating capacity of 10,000 (nearly double the school’s current home), with 3,400 chair-back seats in the lower bowl and 800 such seats in the club section. A team store and coaches offices off the concourse level will overlook the field. The team will have a lounge, nutritional area, indoor hitting cages and a pitching lab.
“In their current ballpark, with all of their concessions and toilets, you have to go outside the stadium to access them,” Ford said. “And when you go out to their current concourse, you don’t get to continually watch the game. So at the new ballpark, as we’ve done in several other ballparks, we’ll have a concourse that wraps around the field that at any point you can see the game.”
Florida is paying for the project primarily with private gifts and bond proceeds.
