With snow on the ground and rain clouds in the sky, Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny suggested it wasn’t the most fitting day to unveil Oregon’s plans for a new baseball stadium.
“The weather’s not the same as in Southern California,” Kilkenny joked to baseball coach George Horton during yesterday’s press conference. “I lied to you.”
Still, the prospect of a $15 million stadium was reason enough for Horton not to worry too much about rainy weather. It’s what was promised to him when he accepted the job.
“Obviously I’m very excited about today,” Horton said. “I have chills about the excitement about a new phase of Oregon baseball.
“So what if it snows? So what if it’s cold? We’re going to find a way to be successful.”
Now the athletic department just needs the funds. With the stadium announcement, Oregon begins its “Take Me Back to the Ball Game” fundraising campaign in order to build a 5,000-seat stadium in the northwest corner of the Autzen parking lot.
Kilkenny said that part of Autzen’s parking spaces will be displaced, though the exact amount has yet to be determined. He said as many as 1,000 parking spots could move to a different location.
“It depends on who you talk to,” Kilkenny said, but expected the issue to be resolved in the next month or two. “We might look at parking opportunities across the bridge.”
While the parking issue creates the last meaningful obstacle to finalize the Autzen site, the location is meant for the athletes’ benefit.
“We feel like this site will allow our student athletes to have the best experience they can possibly have,” Kilkenny said.
“One of the biggest advantages of the Autzen Stadium site is that the baseball program will be able to utilize the tremendous resources that already exist in the vicinity of the Casanova Center, such as our weight room, athletic medicine center and indoor Moshofsky Center,” he said in the release.
The stadium is expected to be built in two parts, with the first phase hoping to start no later than fall 2008. The first construction phase of the stadium is what Kilkenny called “utilitarian,” consisting of the necessities in order to play collegiate baseball and will cost in the range of $3 million to $4 million. The stadium is said to contain an artificial playing field, temporary seating for between 1,000 and 2,000 fans, lights and dugouts.
The second part will include a grandstand that will seat between 4,000 and 5,000 fans, luxury suites next to right field, a video board, picnic areas, locker rooms, clubhouses and an Oregon baseball history area.
“It looks amazing,” said Darrell Hunter, who is part of the Ducks’ inaugural class. “Just looking at their football and basketball facilities, you know their baseball stadium is going to be pretty sweet.”
Horton wanted an artificial turf field in the grass seed capital of the world because of the Northwest’s steady rain, saying that the other teams in the area use turf.
“When we’re calling people in to come to Eugene to play, and travel all over the country – you want to be able to promise them that we’re going to get games in,” Horton said.
The fundraising efforts mainly consist of various naming rights throughout the stadium. Specifically, the park’s name is up for grabs for $5 million while cheaper options, like a stadium brick, will cost between $250 to $1,000. Oregon has already secured $6.5 million in donations.
The stadium will also host the Eugene Emeralds minor league baseball team who have agreed in principle to use the facilities as early as the summer of 2010.
“Although Civic Stadium has been wonderful to us for a number of years, the possibilities for the future are exciting,” D.G. Elmore, chairman of the Elmore Sports Group that operates the Emeralds, said in the release. “We have to be realistic about what’s in our best interest. To find a long-term solution that provides us with an opportunity to move into a modern facility that meets the standards required today in professional baseball is very encouraging. We’re still involved in discussion with University representatives but remain hopeful that we can come to an agreement on the details.”
Some of the issues include rent price, how the stadium will be decorated with either Emeralds or Oregon logos, or if those will be switched out and if the Ducks and Emeralds will share the same advertisements. Kilkenny said there are still some remaining issues to be finalized with the city of Eugene as well.
“We still have some more work to do,” Kilkenny said, citing that the reconfiguration of parking spaces still needs to be finalized with the city.
As for the dimensions of the actual field, Horton said that it’ll be a pitcher’s park, estimating that the field will be 330 feet to the left and right field corners, 380 feet to the alleys and 410 feet to dead-center field.
“It’s conducive to the style of baseball that my staff and I prefer to play,” Horton said. “You don’t make your way to the College World Series without great pitchers and it’s hard to convince pitchers to come to a place where the ballpark plays too small.”
At the end of the conference, Horton was asked if he’d have come to Oregon if he wasn’t promised a stadium as nice as the one planned. Horton paused and scanned the crowd for several seconds before giving his answer straight-faced.
“No,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
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