ODU's Ellmer Family Baseball Complex Will Open With Temporary Outfield Seating

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – The renovation of the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex at TowneBank Field will narrowly miss being complete in time for the upcoming 2026 baseball season. However, Old Dominion has made plans to play every home game there, and fans will be accommodated in exceptional fashion.

ODU has contracted with a leading national seating company to install temporary seating that, along with standing room, will accommodate nearly 1,000 spectators, with most over-hanging the left-field fence.

Rally Alley, ODU’s fan-friendly area along the right-field line, will be replicated in left field, but will offer a more unique experience with food trucks, beverage stations and a party lounge tent with TV’s that will show game broadcasts live. There will also be a standing room railing where fans can watch games from above left field.

Two modular pods will be set up along the first-base side that will operate as a press box for scorekeepers, announcers and broadcasters.

Ashley Schumaker, ODU’s executive vice president for administration and chief operating officer, said there were unforeseen and unavoidable construction delays and that the temporary seating was the best option available.

“We are committed to building a state-of-the-art stadium with a game-day experience unlike anything our baseball fans have experienced before,” she said. “In doing so, we’ve run into some unforeseen obstacles and had to make modifications to our original plan.

“You only get to do this once in a lifetime and we’re not leaving any stone unturned to make this the best baseball facility possible.”

Some of the unexpected delays revolved around infrastructure, including storm-water retention and utility lines running underneath the stadium that had to be moved.

Rick French, ODU’s senior associate athletics director for capital projects, facilities and operations, said that delays occur more often during renovations than when building facilities from scratch.

“Unfortunately, these kinds of delays can happen on any project, especially when you are renovating a facility," he said. 

ODU Head Baseball Coach Chris Finwood said he’s grateful that the University will make it possible to play at the stadium this spring. Because of the renovation, the Monarchs were forced to play home games last season at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton and Norfolk’s Harbor Park.

“It’s really nice that the University stepped up and we’re grateful for that,” he said. “The most important thing to all of us involved in the program was being able to play here and not having to go on the road again for all of our games.”

Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, said: “We’re fortunate that we have so much room behind the outfield. That became the natural landing spot for temporary seating.”

ODU might make the temporary seating a permanent part of the stadium, he added.

“When you think about the SEC and all of the great baseball atmospheres you see throughout that conference, they all have an outfield student section that makes life very difficult for the opposing team and opposing outfielders,” he said.

“It will be a carnival-like atmosphere in the outfield similar to what you see in SEC venues.”

The old Bud Metheny Ballpark did not have a place dedicated for students. Finwood said he hopes the outfield bleachers will become the place for students to congregate.

“That could really be an awesome advantage for our program,” Dr. Selig said.

Combined with the 2,500 chairback seats and standing room for hundreds more that will exist in the new facility, ODU would have a home capacity of approximately of nearly 4,000 spectators. That extra capacity might help ODU attract Power 4 schools to come play at ODU, Dr. Selig said. 

Shumaker, Michal Holliday, assistant vice president for facilities management and construction; Dr. Selig, French, Bruce Stewart, ODU’s deputy athletic director and chief operating officer; and Dr. Ron Moses, deputy athletic director for student-athlete advancement, revenue growth, and competitive strategy; met with the baseball team last week for 30 minutes to explain the construction delays and reveal the new plans for spectators in 2026.

ODU must rebuild the streets around the stadium to meet modern stormwater management requirements and in doing so, “we’ve got utility lines that date back literally into the early 1900s,” Holliday said.

Officials expect the stadium renovation to be completed this summer. 

Shumaker and others apologized to the players for the delay. She added that once officials realized the stadium would not be ready on time, they were determined to find a way to make it possible to play on campus.

“The University is going to spend about a quarter of a million dollars to make sure that all of you can play in this stadium this season,” Schumaker told the players.

“And it’s going to be worth every penny.”

Scotty Young, a redshirt senior outfielder from Mission Viejo, California, spoke for the team at the end of the presentation.

“I want to express our gratitude as a group not only to our entire athletic department, but also to the academic side of campus, for everything you’ve put into this financially and for all of the time and dedication on a personal level you’ve put into this,” he said.

“For you to work so hard to make sure we’re playing in this stadium this season, that means a lot to us.”

ODU opens the season with a three-game series against Quinnipiac Feb. 13-15 and concludes with a three-game series against James Madison May 14-16. During that time, fans will be able to see the stadium gradually grow. It is already taller than the old Bud Metheny Ballpark and the footprint continues to spread upward and outward.

“The new stadium is going to be bigger than most people think, much taller than the old stadium,” Finwood said. “This delay isn’t what we wanted but it will be kind of neat to see the stadium sort of grow up in front of us.”

The $24 million renovation is a result of the 2021 ODU baseball season, when the Monarchs won the Conference USA title, were seeded 11^th in the NCAA Tournament and won the right to host an NCAA Regional.

However, because Bud Metheny Ballpark fell far short of NCAA standards, ODU could not host, and the Monarchs were forced to play at the University of South Carolina in an NCAA Regional. The Monarchs defeated the homestanding Gamecocks, 2-1, but lost in the championship game to Virginia, 4-3, in extra innings on a walk-off home run.

Dr. Selig has since said that not playing at home may have cost the Monarchs a trip to the College World Series. “It was a very bitter pill to swallow,” Dr. Selig said.

Spurred to action by that bitter pill, prominent ODU supporters began discussions about a fundraising campaign to provide the Monarchs with a proper stadium.   

President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., wasn’t yet at ODU, but when Dr. Selig described what had happened, President Hemphill vowed that would never happen again.

With President Hemphill’s reassurance, Dr. Selig worked with the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation to begin a fundraising effort. 

Dr. Hemphill rolled up his sleeves and took part in fundraising. He asked the Ellmer family, Dennis and wife, Jan, along with other notable ODU supporters, to donate to the project. The Ellmers donated $2.5 million for the complex naming rights.

The University is paying for half of the $24 million renovation. ODAF has raised $11 million of the $12 million that athletics must fund.

The new stadium will have state-of-the-art amenities.

The stadium’s bleacher seating is being expanded and replaced with individual chairback seating.

There will be an indoor/outdoor club at ground level that has been named for long-time ODU donor Barry Kornblau. It will be similar to the Priority Automotive Club at ODU’s S.B. Ballard Stadium and will seat 400 spectators.

ODU will also have a field-level suite available for donors to purchase.  Restrooms and concessions facilities will be modernized and enlarged, and ODU players will dress in spacious locker room with modern amenities, including lighted lockers. There will be an adjacent players’ lounge.

The new entrance on the south side of the stadium will have an attractive façade that will be framed with the orange brick used for most ODU facilities. It will have concrete arched doorways.  

“We’re going to end up with a beautiful stadium, one of the best in the state and one of the best in college baseball,” Finwood said. “It’s just going to take us a little longer than we had hoped to get there.”

CLICK HERE for ODU’s 2026 baseball schedule.