Margo Jonker Stadium finishes construction in time for doubleheader with Detroit-Mercy
Softball will host Detroit-Mercy today in its first game at the newly renovated Margo Jonker Stadium.
“This project will increase our chair-back seating, as well as change the seating to be one consistent section instead of three individual sections,” said Kristen Kosuda-Suhr, assistant athletic director of facilities.
Among the enhancements are additional seating and replacement of worn-out structures. Chair-back seats have almost been doubled, increasing from 66 to 129, raising the total seating capacity to 286, most of which are completely accessible to the American Disability Association standards.
Two ADA ramps on either side of the park have been built to accommodate these standards, and the upper levels of bleacher seating are now accessible with stairs.
Older features of the park have been replaced with newer materials. New netting has been put on the batting cages and bullpens, and the upright support structures have been replaced for them as well. Additionally, the old and battered Plexiglas windows for the press boxes have been replaced.
A supplementary batting cage has been added, bringing the total to three.
Construction was completed early this week in time for today's inaugural doubleheader with the Titans. There are still plans for a small entertainment deck behind the third base dugout that will be finished at the conclusion of this season.
Built in 1995, the renovation development for the stadium has been in progress since late 2006 where it was determined that the stadium was due for an upgrade. Marcy Weston, Executive Associate Director of Athletics/Sport Administration, said all athletic facilities are monitored by the individual sports administrators and preventative measures are taken to improve facilities before they encounter too much of a degradation.
“It’s like your house, you can't wait until the roof has a hole in it; you have to get it improved at regular intervals,” Weston said.
From there, a capital campaign began to generate a goal of $400,000. At some point during this process, it was decided that the stadium be dedicated to head coach Margo Jonker, who was honored with her namesake in 2008.
Interestingly, although many dedicated buildings on campus bear only the last name of their namesake, Margo Jonker Stadium includes both quite intentionally.
“Fifty years from now, people may not know if Jonker is a male or female, so we wanted to include her first name so that everyone would know that it was named after a woman,” Weston said.
While most of this fundraising came from three-to-five year pledges from different sources, there is a CMU gender equality fund that exists to ensure that women's sports facilities and equipment are equal to men's sports.
