Oklahoma State University has unveiled plans for a new $60 million baseball stadium in Stillwater that will open for the start of the 2020 season.
The Tulsa World reports that Athletic Director Mike Holder, baseball coach Josh Holliday and Jim Hasenbeck, one of the stadium’s architects, spoke with senses of excitement, relief and pride about the new facility.
“This is going to be a new day for OSU baseball,” Holder says.
Among the features and numbers in the new stadium:
• 3,500 permanent seats, 13 suites and 400 premium seats. With terrace areas for seating in the outfield, as well as tailgating tents, Hasenbeck says it will accommodate 6,000 to 6,500 people when it’s full, with the ability to expand to 8,000.
• A 360-degree concourse that will enable fans to watch the game from any corner of the stadium.
• A batter’s eye in center that will be made of a dark piece of glass so fans can stand behind and see through toward the field.
• A natural grass playing surface as well as an artificial turf practice infield for year-round use. The practice field is part of a “training triangle” that also includes an indoor facility and a “pitching lab.”
• A clubhouse and team room along the left-field line that will have a 7,400-square foot locker room and player lounge space. The facility will include its own nutrition center and a classroom for 50.
• An operations center with a sports medicine area that has hydrotherapy equipment, a weight room and a baseball-specific equipment room.
• A 2,000-square foot video board atop the team’s indoor facility.
• A TrackMan system, which tracks pitch velocity, exit speed, launch angle and distance.
"We designed a stadium that I think has, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have that?’ in every single corner,” Holliday says. “We thought our way through it as a player, we thought our way through it as coaches, we looked at it as fans, we looked at it as baseball purists who love to come to the game and just watch the game.”
