OU MUST HAVE NEW STADIUM OR GASSO COULD GO AWAY

Patty Gasso is the best softball coach in the college game.  Her team is currently the most dominate team as the Sooners won another National Championship this week at the Women’s College World Series staged at the National Softball Hall-of-Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

Gasso’s team will be the prohibitive favorite to win the title next year.    The balance of this season’s team returns for 2022,  include the National Player-of-the Year Jocelyn Alo, the National fresh woman of the year Tiare Jennings, and various top echelon players that will fill out the roster.  The Sooners in 2022 will not be in rebuild but will be in a “monster mode ” that will feast on the best teams that will be thrown at them.

Oklahoma University has the best college softball team and the best softball program in the country.  And sports fans, for what it is worth,  the future for the women’s college softball program in Norman is now. That future revolves around it’s head coach, Patty Gasso.

OU’s softball program deserves a home field in Norman, on campus, that would be the best facility in the country.  No excuse here for Sooner Athletic Director Joe Castiglione.

Marita Hynes Field, built in 1998 with a seating capacity of 1,378 is not of what champions play on in this college sport.  It is old, not “cutting edge” and is basically a 22 year old facility that needs a replacement now.  That was the opinion four years ago when when the school started on the the renovation/build for this sports facility at OU.   Joe Castiglione, hold the excuses.  You have not put the program, Patty Gasso, the softball community that supports the best college team in the country, on your radar to get this completed.

The Sooner support for the new softball build is around $14 million short with approximately 8 million funded by donors.  This was confirmed by an e-mail given to the Sooner Club members this week.   OU is not a chicken salad school.  It has donors with the big bucks.  If Oklahoma State University can find one donor to basically build their football facility Mr. Castiglione should be able to fine one donor that can take on this project alone.  There are big bucks that support the sports at OU.  That is not even under consideration.  The 347 million dollar project to make the football facility and extras what it is has been completed under this current AD.  This softball issue is small fries compared to the football upgrades.  If your football coach told you Joe that he needed $25 million to do something for the football program how long would it take?  Six months?  A year?  Please Joe C, tell me you cannot find the money, the donors, the donor, the money to fund a new facility with all the necessities? No you do not Joe. Please do not even try.

The staff writer Jenny Carlson of the Oklahoman newspaper tried to give excuses on why the softball facility has not been built. From her writing in the Oklahoman this week:

In June 2018, Oklahoma Board of Regents approved a proposal for that new facility. It would be 3,000 seats. It would have three concession stands, six restrooms and multiple facilities for the team to use. It would cost $22 million. It would sit on the northwest corner of South Jenkins Avenue and Imhoff Road, just south of the current stadium.

But three years later, that corner is still grass and trees.

Why?

“Money,” Gasso said bluntly earlier this season. “Money is the culprit.”

OU decided half of the cost of the stadium, now estimated at $25 million total, must be raised before ground is broken. The pandemic has slowed fundraising in college sports departments across the country, and OU is no different. But Gasso believes donations for the softball stadium have started flowing again as the Sooners became the talk of the softball world, soaring to No. 1 in the rankings and smashing a school-record number of homers.

“It’s hard in many ways because … you have to give answers to your team,” Gasso said. “When I was recruiting these guys, I’m telling them that they’re (going to be) playing in a new stadium.”

Now, the Sooners will be lucky if this current group of freshmen plays in a new stadium before their eligibility is done, though at least one of them isn’t rankled by that possibility.

It is time to start building the new facility.  You are already four years late Joe Castiglione. Do you job and find the donor and  start the project, now.

In the four years since 2017, Oklahoma University has missed the boat with OU softball with regard to facilities.  Continue to do so and one day you might find Patty Gasso coaching softball at anther place, one that values what she has accomplished in Norman.  Gasso is a hot commodity that can go anywhere she wants.  Think Arizona would not hire her in a New York minute with their vacancy?  She can get players without issue.  That is a given.  Think she would not leave OU.  Play with fire Joe Castiglione and in time you will get burnt.

Feature Photo: proposed new facility for OU softball (Norman Transcript)

Secondary Photo:  Patty Gasso relaxes with the hardware-John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

Site to give to OU Softball:  https://www.thesoonerclub.com/sbstadium.html?utm_source=sbchamp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tk61&fbclid=IwAR086gA3oFysfWvgpZhDizxfLcJ1jN_qgtN_vLD6UECUMcx_KjjuFK5diGI