NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Old Dominion University is delaying the start of its $20 million renovation of the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
ODU Athletic Director Wood Selig says there’s still “a lot of preliminary work that needs to be done,” and they want to be sure the renovation only affects one baseball season instead of two. He also says the stadium project can’t move forward until Virginia finalizes its budget.
“Just given the time it’s going to take to formalize the stadium design and budget, we got a little nervous,” Selig said in a release from ODU. “We need to play it safe. There is no way we could confidently have a completed stadium by February of 2025 at the speed we are going now.”
Work on the facility, which originally opened in 1983, will now begin at the end of the 2024 season instead of January 2024, with ODU playing at an off-campus site (possibly Harbor Park or Hampton’s War Memorial Stadium) during the 2025 season.
ODU administrators though are “hopeful an aggressive work schedule might allow the stadium to open in the last weeks of the 2025 season.
ODU says they’ve so far raised $18.5 million of the $20 million budgeted for the project, and will continue fundraising past that goal to cover any potential cost increases.
When renovations are complete, the facility will be named the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex, after local businessman Dennis Ellmer and his wife Jan donated $2.5 million for the project.
You can read more about the decision and check out the latest design renderings on ODU’s website.