MADISON, Ala. — Toyota Field has been open for nearly four years now but, a renovation is necessary to bring the building into compliance.... with requirements affecting the primary tenant. Major League Baseball wants "minor league" facilities across the nation to add a female locker room to the facility.... to accommodate woman umpires, and others.
For the last three years, the Trash Pandas have been chipping away at smaller renovations to meet compliance standards since MLB took over the minor leagues in 2020 but now...a portion of their renovation could become a bigger project for the city. One that will ultimately pay for itself.
On Monday, the City of Madison will begin discussion to consider whether to expand an already planned overhaul of Toyota Field. The project will include a 4-story facility that will add a new level of club seats and suites in left field. The idea is that doing this will generate a new income stream, but it will bring the total cost of the project to an estimated $22.5 million dollars.
This has now been added to the agenda for Monday's council meeting as the following item:
"Authorization to solicit bids for Toyota Field Left Field Building Project Demolition and Excavation Package"
But this project is in addition to what requirements need to be met which include:
- Clubhouses for both home and visiting teams must be 1,000 square feet or larger. Again, most newer ballparks already feature larger home clubhouses; the issue for many teams will be expanding visitor clubhouses. The clubhouses must also feature improved lockers.
- Nutrition is now emphasized for many organizations, some of whom send out their own food-prep staff and don’t rely on team for the post-game buffet. That’s why you see food-prep and dining areas for both home and visiting clubhouses as a new spec. The challenge here will be carving out the space out of existing office and storage space.
- Better field lighting. This is an easy sell: installing the next generation of LED lights will both save money on daily usage and improve the player experience. The installation of new LED lights can be done with existing stanchions in some cases.
- Better training facilities for players. That means weight rooms and two pitching/batting tunnels.
- Separate spaces for female staffers.
Many of these issues have already been addressed but they have until April to come under full compliance.