Home plate for the softball team is going to look a lot nicer.
A $626,429 project to renovate the softball facilities was approved Tuesday by the Board of Regents.
"It's about time," second baseman Stephanie Kennedy said.
She said she's looking forward to having lights and locker rooms.
Right now, the team doesn't use its locker rooms, because they are across University Boulevard by the soccer team's locker rooms.
The new facility will include dugouts, a combination locker and meeting room, offices and batting cages.
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Roger Lujan, director of facility planning, said the University needs the new facility.
"It's both an issue of improving the field and making the team proud," Lujan said, adding it will help with recruitment.
Softball coach Kim Newbern said it will make her job a lot easier.
"You have to sell the University and sell the idea of the future when kids come in," she said. "We have lost people."
She said the team lost a player who liked the Lobos but left for a place with nicer facilities.
"She straight-up told us that," Newburn said.
Con Colbert, deputy director of athletics, said the new facility should make UNM more competitive.
In the time he's been at the University, he said, softball has been the last priority.
"It started because we felt the softball complex was not up to the same standards as the rest of our facilities," Colbert said.
He said he went over to the softball stadium one day and thought to himself, "This is a disgrace."
At the same time, the baseball team was given access to Isotopes Stadium for games and practice. Colbert said the University must comply with Title IX, a federal law that states access to facilities must be equal between men and women.
Colbert, a Title IX lobbyist, spoke with the athletic director and convinced him they should talk to the Legislature about getting money for the stadium.
"I'm working behind equality for our teams," he said.
The Legislature funded the project in January, and it has been in planning stages for the last two months.
Colbert said this is the first phase of the project. He said he is hoping to find money to pay for lights, outside fences and public restrooms.
Katie Gregg, UNM pitcher, said UNM's softball facilities are nicer than the ones from Washburn University, the school she transferred from.
"We're just here to play, anyway," she said. "You deal with what you got."
She said she hopes the new facility will bring out more people to watch their games.
The project is scheduled for completion in May of 2005. Lujan said a bid proposal is set for this month.
