Photo by: Cameron Brooks
Ole Miss announced a $13 million renovation to Swayze Field on Tuesday. The project is part of their $200 million Forward Together campaign, which helped construct the new Pavilion, among other projects around campus.
“I started hearing beeping outside, and saw a big crane in front of the stadium and got all excited,” head baseball coach Mike Bianco said. “I thought ‘Boy, Ross Bjork does not mess around— 9:30 and there’s already a crane outside.’”
Granted, the crane was just being used to clean the windows at Oxford-University Stadium, but there was still plenty of reason for Bianco’s excitement.
“I’m excited when I start to think about it,” Bianco said. “We’re sitting in a stadium that I consider the best facility in college baseball already.”
There were renovations done to the stadium in 2009, but most of the improvements were directed towards the fans.
“Most of it was done because we outgrew the old stadium. We had to put more seats and we wanted to put some premium seats,” Bianco said. “This upgrade is really centered around the student athletes and their experience here.”
The project will include a new locker room, training room, players’ lounge, meeting room and indoor batting cages, along with a pitching tunnel and a weight room.
Improvements were made to some of these facilities as a part of the 2009 construction but mostly involved additions and improvements to the already-existing rooms and facilities, as opposed to constructing new ones. Fans will not be left out of this renovation either. Improved seating is again apart of the agenda.
“There will be some seating upgrade options for our fans,” Bianco said. “Behind home plate the vision is to build a dugout club down there and bring the backstop a little closer to home.”
The renovations will hopefully be completed by the start of the 2018 season. Ole Miss is still in the process of deciding who will lead this construction process.
