University of Tennessee Athletics
UT Plans Baseball Stadium Improvements
November 04, 2003 | Baseball
Nov. 4, 2003
At an estimated cost of $4.6 million with a projected start date of the summer of 2004, the University of Tennessee will make major renovations to Lindsey Nelson baseball stadium.
UT men's athletic director Mike Hamilton addressed facilities, among other topics, Saturday morning at the semi-annual meeting of the athletics board at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Hamilton told board members the athletic department decided to renovate Lindsey Nelson Stadium rather than build downtown.
In an answer to a board member's question whether on-campus parking for baseball games has been addressed, Hamilton said two things should help alleviate that problem.
He said the university master plan includes a parking garage in the area immediately west of Stokely Athletics Center (directly across the street from the Thornton Center), where paved parking lot No. 23 is located.
Also, Hamilton said talks are ongoing concerning the use of fraternity lots on weekends of SEC games. A large fraternity lot just behind the right-field area of the baseball complex could alleviate the parking concerns if those negotiations prove fruitful.
Minor baseball renovations this fall will include waterproofing of the grandstands, improvements to the dressing room spaces, relocation of the fences, addition of drainage systems, adding chair-back grandstands to the first-base side of the field and addition of a JumboTron scoreboard. The estimated cost of those improvements is $900,000.
Hamilton said application of a sealant should help alleviate water damage in the locker room and lounge areas underneath the stadium.
He said a feasibility study is being done on construction of an overhang that would shield the grandstands from sun and rain. Other options being explored: expansion of the press box with the addition of four to six more boxes, and construction of about 700 seats lower and closer to the field behind home plate.
" That would move home plate out and shorten the distance to the fences about 10 to 15 feet down the lines,'' Hamilton said. "But that's just a draft plan."
Courtesy Knoxville News-Sentinel
