Frank Eck Baseball Stadium (Baseball)
Frank Eck Baseball Stadium |
Nickname: The Eck
Purpose: Practice & Competition
Record: 357-94-2 (.790)
Sq ft: 14,211
Capacity: 2,500
Attendance Record: 3,927 vs West Virginia on April 21, 2007 (17-6)
Most Attended Season: 2006 (2,514 average; 60.334 overall; season high: 3,507 vs Rutgers on April 21, 2006 [2nd highest attendance overall]) - includes 7 of top 8 attending games.
Year Opened: 1994
First Game: March 17, 1994 vs Tennessee (5-8)
No. All-Time Varsity Games: 3,600
Surface Type: Natural Grass
Cost: $5.7 million
Ticket Information
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Notre Dame's 16-year-old Frank Eck Stadium has taken its place alongside some of the finer baseball facilities in the nation. Upon its opening in 1994, the 2,500-seat stadium became the latest jewel among Notre Dame's ever-expanding athletic facilities. Located on the southeast corner of campus, Eck Stadium has become a favorite with the Irish- as Notre Dame posted a 357-94-2 home mark (for an .790 winning percentage) during the 1994-2009 seasons.
The 2006 season featured a record-setting, season-long turnout at Eck Stadium- with the average of 2,514 fans per game including seven of the eight largest crowds in the stadium's history. A sampling of the teams from the May 7, 2006, edition of Baseball America's top-25 poll showed that Notre Dame's record-setting home attendance average ranked 11th-highest among those elite top-25 teams.
Plans to build the stadium were announced June 7, 1991, thanks to a generous gift to the University by recently deceased alumnus Frank Eck and his company, Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio. Eck was the firm's chairman and chief executive officer. He graduated in 1944 with a degree in chemical engineering and later endowed a collection in that field at Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library.
Eck also underwrote construction of the Eck Tennis Pavilion, an on-campus indoor tennis facility completed in 1987. His most recent campus project was the much-anticipated Eck Center, a multi-use facility that opened in 1999 and houses a greatly expanded Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, headquarters for the Notre Dame Alumni Association and the campus visitors' center. The Eck Center is located near the south-central edge of campus, adjacent to the Morris Inn.
Eck Stadium includes spacious home and visitor locker-room areas, meeting rooms and coaching facilities for each team. The stadium also houses a beautiful press box overlooking home plate and the 2,500-seat grandstand. The stadium is illuminated by a state-of-the-art lighting system, allowing for night play.
Eck Stadium boasts one of the finest press box facilities in the nation. Located directly behind home plate, the press box can be outfitted to comfortably seat 25staff and media members. The press box provides a panoramic view of Eck Stadium, in addition to the outlying athletics fields that feature practice sessions and games involving the Irish football, soccer and lacrosse. Other amenities within the press box include a restroom and storage area, plus a series of video monitors that provide real-time game stats and updated season stats for each player as the game progresses. One other addition beginning with the 2000 season was an enclosed, near-soundproof radio booth within the press box.
Several Stadium renovations and additions have been completed since the end of the 1999 season, with more plans in the works for coming years. Most notably, a spacious indoor pitching and batting cage facility - outfitted with clay mounds in two of the three batting tunnels - was completed prior to the 2000 season. The stadium sound system was upgraded with the latest technology while an enclosed, sound-resistant radio booth was constructed within the Eck Stadium press box and a full-functional message board was added in 2001.
At the 1995 Notre Dame alumni game, the University officially named Eck Stadium's playing surface Jake Kline Field, in honor of the program's winningest coach. Kline won 558 games in his 42-year career (1934-75).
A new era at Frank Eck stadium began in January of 2000, as a 9,000-square foot indoor hitting and pitching facility was completed in time from preseason workouts. The facility- located adjacent to the leftfield line- includes: wall-to-wall artificial turf floor; three full-length batting tunnels; two regulation clay pitching mounds within the tunnels; a one half-cage with clay home plate area for the catchers drills; and an "Iron Mike" pitching machine, with automatic ball feeder and remote control. The 120 x 80 facility includes men and women's restrooms and a classroom for video analysis. The building is outfitted with complete central air conditioning and heating, plus lighting setup that matches Major League standards. A final addition is six cardiovascular exercise machines-including two stair masters, three stationary bicycles and a treadmill-which allow maximum conditioning opportunities. The Irish combine use of the new indoor facility (for pitching, hitting and catching) with the existing Loftus Center (used primarily for defensive fundamentals and baserunning).
