New stadium would be one of Ivy League's biggest

But it remains to be seen whether there will be enough fans to fill the proposed 2,000-seat stadium. The University's building it. But will they come? If preliminary plans for a new Penn varsity baseball stadium go ahead as expected, the University's facility should be among the best -- and biggest -- baseball fields in the Ivy League. The new stadium, tentatively scheduled to open in the spring of 2000, will have the third-largest seating capacity of Ivy baseball fields. Penn's stadium will contain about 2,000 seats, in addition to a lawn area that will provide additional seating, Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said last week. But it remains to be seen whether administrators will actually be able to fill the new stadium. Penn's current facility, Bower Field, has the smallest seating capacity in the Ivies at 150, and many seats are usually empty during games. Several Ivy schools, including Penn, don't even keep records of baseball attendance; the highest average attendance in the conference was Yale, with about 400 fans a game. For Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon, the new baseball stadium -- funded at least in part by a large gift from a yet-to-be-named donor -- represents a "major improvement" and a "big help to the program." "We [currently] have the poorest seating arrangement in the Ivy League, by far," Seddon noted. But the question remains: Will the new stadium attract more than the usual rallying section of assorted friends, parents and fraternity brothers who go to Bower Field, which was built in 1980 and is located behind Franklin Field? The new stadium is to be built on Murphy Field at the southern tip of campus, next to the Schuylkill Expressway. Seddon emphasized, however, that the size of the crowd often depends more on the success of the team than on the quality of the facility -- which may be a problem for the Quakers, who last won an Ivy championship in 1995. "The bottom line is: If you win, people come," he added. The largest baseball facility in the Ivy League is Yale Field in New Haven, Conn. The Elis' field, where former President George Bush once manned first base, accommodates 6,200 fans. Built in 1927, the stadium is also the home field of the New Haven Ravens, a second-tier minor league baseball team. Princeton University's Clarke Field is currently the second-largest baseball complex in the league, seating 2,500 spectators after significant renovations were completed eight years ago. Other large, first-class baseball facilities in the Ivy League include Harvard's O'Donnell Field, which seats 1,600 fans, and Brown's Edward B. Aldrich Baseball Field, which has capacity for 1,500. Those four universities have all upgraded their facilities in recent years. By 2000, that list should include the Pennsylvania Quakers. In fact, Bower Field's seating capacity of 150 ranks dead last in the Ivy League, behind Columbia's Andy Coakley Field, which seats 300, and Cornell's 500-capacity Hoy Field. The Athletic Department plans to eventually install lighting, allowing for night games, in the natural-grass facility. Administrators are currently discussing the "important details" of the stadium with architects, including the height of the outfield walls and the distances of the foul poles. However, as attendance records from Yale, Princeton and Harvard show, larger baseball facilities do not necessarily guarantee bigger crowds. Last season, the Princeton Tigers' squad drew an average of 227 fans, while Yale and Harvard attracted only 400 and 200 spectators, respectively. Although all three schools generally attracted more people than the Quakers did, the numbers are still well below capacity level.