Renovations planned for Rhodes Field

Overcrowded bleachers and a playing field that looked like it lost a 10-round fight with the sun and rain will soon be just bad memories for the Penn soccer program. Rhodes Field, the decaying home to Penn's men's and women's soccer teams, will be receiving much-needed renovations within the next two years, pending University approval. The Athletic Department plans to construct a 500-to-1,500 seat brick grandstand with a press box and a VIP box on the east side of Rhodes Field, which is located on the east end of campus. In addition, officials said maintenance work will be done on the field itself. Penn has already raised approximately $500,000 for the $750,000 project, which will take approximately three to four months to complete. Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said the improvements to Rhodes Field would at the earliest be completed by the fall of 2001. "Currently, we don't have a facility that can compete with the other Ivies," said men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller, who added that he thought the new field -- once finished -- would be "the best in the Ivy League." While several parts of the field will receive minor renovations, the focus of the Rhodes Field project will be the construction of the grandstand. The grandstand, which will support the bleachers, VIP box and press box, will be constructed with brick -- a style consistent with the other major athletic facilities at Penn. "It will be a brick structure tying in the best effects of Franklin Field," Fuller said. The structure will also serve as a barrier from the noise of the Schuylkill Expressway, which is less than 100 yards east of Rhodes Field. The renovations will address other shortcomings of the current Rhodes Field. The facility's problems were magnified last season when a summer drought left the playing surface in poor condition and the success of the NCAA-qualifying women's soccer team brought more people to games than the bleachers could hold. The poor condition of the playing field -- with its patches of dirt, uneven ground and stray tufts of grass -- will be addressed this offseason, regardless of when the grandstand is erected. Some preliminary maintenance to the playing surface was done last month, but a complete resodding may still be necessary to return the field to a playable condition. "Best case scenario, the field rebounds on its own and is ready to go for this fall," Fuller said. "But if that isn't the case, we'll be looking at every option to get it back to where it was." The seating concerns, meanwhile, will not have a temporary solution prior to the construction of the grandstand, despite overcrowding problems last season. According to women's soccer coach Andy Nelson, attendance last year at times exceeded 600 -- despite the field's seating capacity of approximately 500. "I remember times last year when the few bleachers we have out there were just jam-packed with people and there's a whole bunch of people having to sit and stand around the side of the field," Nelson said. "We definitely need a facility that's going to cope with the crowds." The new soccer facility comes on the heels of the construction of the new baseball stadium at Murphy Field. Minor renovations are also planned for softball's Warren Field and the Palestra. "I think Penn Athletics is very serious about being strong right across the board," Nelson said. "I think this new facility will give us the opportunity to have as good of, if not better, facility than anyone else in the Ivy League."