I think the article is being a paywall, so here you go
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M freshman third baseman Gavin Grahovac swings between referring to the Aggies’ baseball home as Blue Bell Park and the old-school Olsen Field.
“I know it’s Blue Bell Park, but you’re on Olsen Field, and everyone is kind of looking down on you from the stands,” Grahovac said of him perhaps gravitating toward Olsen in the final call.
For the record, it’s officially Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, and in two or three years it should also have another title: one of the nation’s nicest, biggest college baseball stadiums.
“When you look at some of the places we’ve been, like Mississippi State, LSU and Ole Miss, what they don’t really have is a bunch of people who want to get in the game but can’t get in,” A&M ace pitcher Ryan Prager said of his ideal Blue Bell Park. “It (needs) more seating. We’ve proven with all the (extra) fans in left field that people want to be here.
“People want to be at the games, and be into them and be invested. I’m really excited to see here in a few years when the new stadium is done, and really being proud of, ‘That’s the place you played.’ ”
A&M’s regents this month approved an $80 million upgrade to Blue Bell Park, scheduled to begin in about two years and then be completed over about two years. Coach Jim Schlossnagle, who has built the A&M baseball program into one of the nation’s best over three seasons, has championed a Blue Bell rebuild since his arrival from TCU in the summer of 2021.
“We’ve got to get our ballpark built to accommodate more fans,” Schlossnagle said of the stadium last renovated in 2012, when it also took on the Blue Bell name thanks to a $7 million contribution from the “little creamery” just down FM 50 in Brenham.
Because the renovations are still a couple of years away, Schlossnagle and A&M have time to put together an ideal blueprint for the longtime baseball space between Olsen Boulevard and the railroad tracks along Wellborn Road.
“The renderings we’ve seen to this point, if we’re able to do that, holy cow,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s going to be awesome, and I can’t wait for the public to see that.”
A&M appears to be heavily leaning toward staying in the same spot — for instance a quarter century ago the university built basketball’s Reed Arena on west campus and away from the old G. Rollie White in the heart of campus — meaning final capacity is impacted.
“At the current time we’re planning on staying in this footprint, so we have physical limitations as to how far out we can go,” Schlossnagle said. “We can certainly go up, but you also have the sun to deal with (sitting in) right field.”
Mississippi State, Arkansas, Mississippi and LSU all have capacity of more than 10,000 fans — MSU’s Dudy Noble Field leads all college parks with a capacity of 15,000 — and are the nation’s four largest on-campus college stadiums. All are in the Southeastern Conference, which this week had four of the nation’s five highest-ranked teams.
No. 3 Arkansas and No. 5 A&M closed out a three-game series on Saturday afternoon at Blue Bell Park, and the Aggies are expected to host a regional and then super regional of the NCAA Tournament, if they win the four-team regional.
Blue Bell Park’s listed capacity is 6,100, behind even Rice’s Reckling Park (6,193). Texas’s Disch-Falk Field has a listed capacity of 6,649, as the Longhorns and Oklahoma prepare to exit the Big 12 and enter the SEC on July 1. A&M has stuffed in fans for the Arkansas series, and even added temporary bleachers in left field to be able to sell around 250 more tickets for each of the three games.
The Friday night crowd of 7,980 was the second largest of the season and more than 1,800 above listed capacity.
“For me, I was hoping for anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 (capacity), because I think the school and the 12th Man deserve that,” Schlossnagle said of his ideal number of fans in Blue Bell Park once the upgrades are complete. “But it’s probably going to be closer to 10,000-ish, with a lot of standing room space.”
Schlossnagle described a “360-degree concourse where you can walk everywhere” complete with a “drink rail” ideal for packed, marquee games, which occur frequently in the SEC considering the league has won the last four national titles (four different teams in LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt).
“Say you had roughly 10,000 seats, and then you could sell another 1,500-2,000 for standing room only, where people could just find a spot,” Schlossnagle said. “All of your best seats would be down the left-field line and third-base line and in left field, because you don’t have to look back into the sun. … (Those would be) your highest-priced seats. And you have an opportunity to (build) ‘up’ in the outfield.”
Following the Arkansas series the Aggies will compete in the SEC tournament starting Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., before returning to Blue Bell Park for a regional and perhaps a super regional leading to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Schlossnagle’s early success at A&M helped bring about the $80 million approval from regents this month. The Aggies made the final four for the first time in program history in Schlossnagle’s first season of 2022 following his hire from TCU, where he led the Horned Frogs to five CWS appearances from 2010-17.
