The Cal Poly baseball program will receive a new state-of-the-art facility to replace its current clubhouse near the third base line of Baggett Stadium.
This new facility, which will be approximately 10,000 sq. ft, will be the first new construction for athletics in the past 10 years, associate Athletic Director Ashley Offerman said.
The facility will include: a kitchen, a lounge, study areas, a multipurpose room, a larger locker room, coaches’ offices and a sports medicine area.
“The facility will be what we like to call ‘the home away from home’ for our baseball student-athletes,” Offerman said.
In addition to the new facility, the temporary bleachers will be replaced with permanent ones that will bring the total project cost to approximately $7.5 million. Adding in permanent bleachers will raise the capacity from 700 to approximately 3,500 fans.
Ground breaking will begin at the end of this calendar year and the project is estimated to take approximately 18 months.
To recognize a major supporter of the project, the facility will be called the Dignity Health Baseball Clubhouse. Dignity Health declined to comment.
However, Dignity Health is not the only supporter: local businesses, baseball alumni, parents of student-athletes and community members have supported the team. Even head coach Larry Lee and his brothers have invested in the facility.
Cal Poly baseball is a force to be reckoned with, and therefore needs the necessary tools to be at the same playing field as its competition, Offerman said.
“We feel given the necessary tools, we can be on par with other West Coast universities (and) we can compete in the national championships,” Offerman said.
Currently, the athletic trainers are located in Mott Athletics Center, all the way across campus. Not only will this waste less time for the players, but it will also make physical therapy more accessible.
“If you think about where Baggett Stadium is located, exactly 1.4 miles from the (Julian A. McPhee University Union) UU. It takes about 30 minutes to an hour everyday going back and forth to the field,” Offerman said. “They are basically going to have everything at Baggett Stadium except for their classes, which means that the kids are going to be able to use their time more effectively.”
Additionally, it will provide a convenient location where the players can study when they are off the field, student manager and biological sciences freshman Clay Villars said.
“It will create an atmosphere that will make the guys want to be there more often and actually give them the space to do so,” Villars said.
The brand new facility will be used as a recruiting tool, but more importantly, will fill student-athletes with a sense of pride for Cal Poly Athletics.
“It’s also going to be a place of pride,” Offerman said. “When they renovated the locker rooms in Mott Athletics Center, the student athletes felt pride over the improvements, which elevates their level of play.”