Money needed for softball stadium

Steve Carp

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 11:02 a.m.

The plans are in place. The spot has been picked out. The need obviously is there.

All that is missing is someone willing to write a check for $2.4 million to give UNLV a new 1,500-seat state-of-the-art softball stadium.

Once a perennial challenger for the national championship, Shan McDonald's team has fallen on hard times. The team is coming off a 21-30 season. This after being in the College World Series just three years ago.

According to McDonald, part of the problem is Rebel Diamond.

When she came to UNLV in 1987, it was good enough to attract quality players, such as Olympic gold medal-winning pitcher Lori Harrigan. But during that 11-year span, many schools have significantly upgraded their softball fields.

UNLV is trying to play catch-up.

"We've been left in the dust," McDonald said. "Picture a baseball field with three bleachers. What kid is going to want to play there?"

UNLV's master plan calls for an education classroom building to eventually occupy the space currently taken up by the softball field. And while it's quaint to have a diamond nestled in the hub of an academic environment, McDonald said there's a bigger picture to be addressed.

"A new stadium is the most important thing in the program's future," she said. "It affects all recruiting and it would show a commitment to the program."

According to athletic department officials, it's not from a lack of trying that the funding for a new field hasn't been obtained. Interest in investing in such a project has been lukewarm for a variety of reasons.

Timing has played a factor, witness the recent wild swing on Wall Street in the past week. Corporations that are losing millions aren't about to write a multi-million dollar check just to be magnanimous.

McDonald said she has talked to a few people about footing the bill. So far, she can't get anyone to pull out the checkbook.

But there's a possibility the stadium can be built in stages. There may be funding to relocate the field, to sit adjacent to the Earl E. Wilson Baseball Stadium in time for next season, and then build permanent seats and other amenities once the funding becomes available.

McDonald said that would be fine.

"If I knew that we'd get the entire thing done within the next couple of years, that would be fine," she said of having the new stadium built in stages.

The other option may be for the master plan to kick in and have the state pay for the relocation of the field, much like it did with the new UNLV track. If construction on the classroom building were to begin next summer, someone would have to pay for building the new field.

But there doesn't appear to be any rush to evict McDonald's program from the middle of campus.

Unless a private donor comes up with the money, the softball team may be forced to remain in a facility that McDonald described as "substandard to some high schools."