Sketches Of Tulsa's Downtown Ballpark Released

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- The consultant who will manage the construction of the new downtown Tulsa baseball stadium has released the first sketches of what the ballpark will look like.

Reed Woods, the president of Stonebridge Group, presented the architectural drawings to members of the Tulsa Development Authority at Tulsa's city hall Tuesday morning.

View the latest rendering.

The TDA owns most of the land on which the stadium will be built and is in the process of transferring the land to the Tulsa Stadium Trust, which was formed by the city last summer specifically to fund and build the ballpark.

TDA plans to close on the transfer of the land on Friday. The ceremonial groundbreaking is then set for 1:30pm on December 16 at the site, northwest of the intersection of Archer and Greenwood.

City officials say the new stadium will have 30 initial private suites with the capability to combine some suites.  In addition, the 6,200 seat facility will be a sunken stadium with the actual playing field being approximately 13 feet below street level. 

The Tulsa Stadium Trust selected Manhattan Construction from a list of three bidders to be the contractor for the ballpark. Manhattan then teamed with the non-profit charity the Tulsa Community Foundation to form Tulsa Stadium Construction Co., LLC.

That company will then hire sub-contractors as plans for the individual parts of the stadium are completed. The members of the stadium trust say the unusual set-up will allow it to cut a full year out of the construction process.

Tuesday morning, Woods told the TDA that the plan is to finish the Tulsa Drillers' offices at the stadium by January 2010, and the rest of construction by February 2010.

The Tulsa Drillers would then begin their first season in the new downtown ballpark later that spring.