Demolition of the Ole Miss softball complex underway but will be 'playable' for 2024 season
Anyone driving past Gillom Sports Complex on the southeastern side of the Ole Miss campus will notice one glaring omission; the softball stadium is gone.
The renovation project for the Ole Miss softball complex got underway a couple weeks ago after the conclusion of the Rebels season, meaning demolition is taking place and a brand new stadium will stand there soon.
Part of the CHAMPIONS.NOW. capital campaign that was announced two years ago that includes the renovated Manning Center also had plans for the Ole Miss softball program to get a new and updated home.
While the rise of NIL has caused for several other major projects to be shelved for the foreseeable future, the softball stadium is one that was able to still get the green light to move ahead.
Now where once stood a softball stadium are tractors and back hoes sitting in an open lot with rubble piled in the middle that is the last remnants of the Rebels previous home.
This is stage one of a project that will take at least a couple years to complete, according to Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter when speaking with The Ole Miss Spirit earlier this week.
“We’re going to save a few components, though. Maybe some of the seating for the outfield,” Carter said. “We’ll just keep rolling on it and it will get to a point where it will be playable for the spring season. They will probably have to practice out at mTrade Park, different places in the fall.
“It won’t be totally complete in the spring but it will be playable and we’ll have all the amenities so we can put games on TV and do those types of things. Then, obviously, once the season’s over we’ll finish it up and it will be totally ready to go for the (2025) season.
When Ole Miss starts next season in its new stadium there will be a different vantage point for the batters.
Not only is a brand new stadium being constructed but Ole Miss is taking the opportunity to rearrange the footprint, rotating it slightly to face back towards campus.
Home plate in the previous stadium was in the northwest corner of the complex but the new stadium will see home plate where the right field foul pole was, close to the previous entrance gate by Hathorn Road that separates it and the soccer complex.
The grandstand and pressbox will now be facing towards Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, aligning with the same direction Oxford-University Stadium faces.
“Kind of facing back to the northeast which is traditional for baseball, softball that they kind of point to the northeast. It’ll be good,” Carter said.”
Ole Miss is coming off a season where it made its seventh consecutive NCAA Softball Tournament appearance, reaching the Salt Lake City Regional Final before being eliminated by host Utah.
