Vanderbilt baseball has received a significant upgrade to its training space, as the program is debuting a new $12 million athletic facility.
Located behind the left field wall of Hawkins Field, the new facility allows Vanderbilt to modernize and improve the offerings for its baseball program. The project received contributions from nearly 250 donors, a group that included professional players that once suited up for Vanderbilt. In fact, former Vanderbilt ace and current Boston Red Sox David Price donated $2.5 million for the project.
The university is now unveiling the 30,000-square-foot, three-story facility, which offers plenty of amenities for coaches, current players, and alumni alike. More from The Tennessean:
“It wasn’t meant to be the most luxurious building,” said Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin, whose new office is fully glassed behind the left-field mesh wall and offers the perfect view of Hawkins Field.
“The idea was just to create a home for our kids.”
Corbin is sincere. The Commodores’ new three-story, 30,000-square-foot baseball training facility has practical purposes for one of the elite programs in college baseball. There are expansive batting cages, a kitchenette stocked with nutritional supplements, a medical training room, a cardio room and an enlarged weight room.
But there are amenities unique to Vanderbilt in the new facility, which opened over the summer. It houses a locker room only for former Vanderbilt players and current professional players. In the offseason, it’s common to see as many as 25 major league and minor league players in a given day stroll through the building.
Vanderbilt baseball has played its games at Hawkins Field since its opening in 2002.