Construction Update: Old College Field

The next phase of construction at Old College Field is gearing up, this time affecting the softball field. While the new baseball stadium opened for this season, renovations throughout the complex are still ongoing, such as at the concessions and restroom building. Now work is getting ready to begin to upgrade the stands and press box for the softball field.

Plans were presented for the new Drayton McLane, Jr. Stadium at this month's Construction Junction in Wells Hall. These plans will go before the MSU Board of Trustees in September before any work will begin, but the plans are part of an already approved overall development plan for the Old College Field project, so don't expect there to be many changes to these.

The complete presentation may be found online here.






Images courtesy of Michigan State University.

Construction Update: Old College Field

During our extended Memorial Day break there was another construction junction, and this was a busy one! It was so busy in fact, that we will be splitting the update over two posts. Today's update will discuss more improvements to Old College Field, and then over the weekend there will be an update on campus traffic and parking issues for the fall.

The big presentation related to athletics at the last construction junction was presenting plans for the Concessions and Restrooms Building at the field, which will serve the new McLane Baseball Stadium as well as softball and soccer. MSU's design of that area is very efficient, with shared common areas for all three fields.

Here are the online notes for the presentation:

• New soccer and softball fields complete

  • New baseball field was complete on May 2
• Project scope
  • Add concessions and restrooms to the baseball facilities
  • Added to electrical top the building
  • It will be located at the west end of the field
  • Will look like the batting/pitching facility
  • The building materials enable the building to be “floodable.” Should flooding occur, all doors can be opened.

Note the last bullet point, that the building will be "floodable." This is important because this entire area is located within the Red Cedar's flood plain, and it is very likely that a flood will occur here within the lifespan of this stadium complex.

Images here were taken from the presentation, located online here.