This weekend is sure to be one of the busiest weekends ever at the softball and tennis area located in the northwest corner of the Mississippi State campus. With the MSU softball team hosting Kentucky and the SEC Men’s Tennis Tournament taking place at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre, the area will see plenty of traffic over Super Bulldog Weekend.
However, by the time MSU hosts the 2014 SEC Softball Tournament, fans could see an entirely different landscape.
The exact time frame for the project is unknown at this point, but State officials are planning on replacing the grandstand at the MSU softball field and building an indoor tennis facility on top of a football practice field adjacent to the current tennis courts.
Athletic director Scott Stricklin said it would be nice to have a new softball grandstand ready in time for the 2014 SEC Tournament, but with where they stand right now in the process, that might be aggressive.
“We still have to identify how we are going to fund it, whether it’s fundraising or just fund balance,” he said. “We’re wrapping up our design on it, and we want to have a place to know what we’re shooting for.”
The new facility would seat approximately 1,000 fans, most of which would be chairback seats, as well as include a new press box. For head coach Vann Stuedeman, the venture is an opportunity to showcase the program in front of ESPN cameras in 2014.
The current softball stadium was built when the program came back to MSU in 1997 and seats 750 fans. In 2011, a new LED scoreboard was installed over the left field fence, and an indoor practice facility was built adjacent to the stadium in 2005.
“It’s huge. I would say it’s of the utmost importance,” Stuedeman said. “With ESPN coming on campus to showcase Mississippi State, we’re going to have regional coverage and sometimes national coverage with ESPN. We definitely want to show how awesome it is in Starkville. Then the recruiting aspect of college athletics is the most important piece of the puzzle. A facility upgrade is going to definitely lure more candidates and athletes to take a look at our softball program.”
For a tennis program looking to maintain its current top-10 ranking over the next few years, the next major step facilities wise is an indoor tennis facility, which is common on SEC campuses. Stricklin said the facility will likely be built a little further down the road.
One holdup in the past has been where to put the facility, but the decision was made recently that the football’s three practice fields would be shifted over, allowing room for the tennis facility. Currently, head coach Per Nilsson’s team can practice in the two courts inside McCarthy gymnasium, but that is not enough room for his entire team to be able to practice when forced indoors due to weather.
“We’re lucky to have two, but last year we missed out on a ton of practice, and that hurt us a lot,” Nilsson said. “You know, it’s just, when you bring in a recruit and they see that you have everything they need, it makes a difference when you’re competing with the top guys.”
Stricklin also said he is hoping to do aesthetic upgrades to the Pitts Tennis Centre, including some chairback seats, brick on the stadium and other improvements that help the look of the stadium.
With baseball, track and field, tennis and softball all taking place the same time of the year, parking can become difficult in that area of campus, especially on bigger weekends like Super Bulldog Weekend. Stricklin said he recognizes the need for more parking but also believes one key aspect will be proving more pedestrian access to get to the tennis and softball facilities. Currently, there are no sidewalks that run directly to the complex.
The Bulldog Club, which would play a major role in funding these projects, continues to see its annual giving increase. Stricklin said the numbers would be slightly lower overall this year because the Bulldog Club has not received anything like the $12 million donation from the Seal family that was given in 2011.