HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Marshall University baseball program dates back to 1910.Yet despite being around for more than a century, the Thundering Herd have never had their own stadium.
That will change in the near future.
The school’s athletic department announced this week ground will be broken on a state-of-the-art baseball stadium Saturday at 10:30 a.m., in advance of Marshall’s football game against Western Kentucky.
“Forever is a long, long time,” Marshall Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick said Wednesday on MetroNews Talkline.
Construction on the stadium is set to begin in March with the 3,500-seat venue slated to open in March 2021.
It will be built on the old Flint Pigments Group property between 3rd and 5th Avenue in Huntington.
The $20-million stadium will have a turf surface and lights. It will also feature club seating indoors and outdoors and private luxury suites. Additionally, the plan calls for a building with clubhouses, a players’ lounge, coaches offices and a hitting facility to be connected to the stadium.
“It’s long overdue,” Hamrick said. “This will be a fabulous baseball facility and one of the best in college athletics.”
“If you’re going to build something my philosophy has always been you might as well builld it to be the best — and that’s what we’re going to do,” Hamrick continued.
Marshall’s baseball team has utilized a number of venues in the past as its home stadium, including Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, the Kennedy Center Field, St. Cloud Commons, Huntington High School and even going out-of-state as far as Chillicothe, Ohio.
In recent years, the Herd have played Conference USA home games at Power Park.
“We’ve played all over the Southeast it appears,” Hamrick said.
Hamrick also mentioned a possibility of bringing a Minor League Baseball team to Huntington to give the stadium use when the Herd aren’t playing.
“Huntington had one before, but never had a facility for it,” Hamrick said.
The new basball stadium will continue a trend of additions and upgrades to facilities under Hamrick’s watch.
In 2013, Marshall opened Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex, an $8-million home for the men’s and women’s soccer programs. Five years later, the Chris Cline Athletic Complex came to Huntington, providing the football team with an indoor practice facility, as well as a track.
“Including this baseball stadium, we will have put 75 to 80 million dollars into our facilities in the 10 years I’ve been here. Facilities make a difference,” Hamrick said. “An excellent coach and facility is the formula for success, and we think that’s going to happen here also.”