Up to $5 million in upgrade work is now planned for the Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso.
Members of the El Paso City Council have given their approval to a plan that will see improvements to the interior of the 10,000-seat stadium, as well as structural improvements, and upgrades to the facility’s food service and retail spaces.
Built at a cost of $72 million and opened in the spring of 2014, the stadium is the home of the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball team, a part of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.
The ballpark, which is owned by the City of El Paso, will also see a club level concourse resurfacing, as well as $545,000 upgrade of the stadium’s luxury West Star Club lounge space.
Additional work will include locker room upgrades, field tarp replacement, and the installation of new video hardware and monitoring equipment.
Minor League Baseball officials last June announced the cancelling of the 2020 season due to the Covid pandemic. The subsequent loss of revenue for the Southwest University Park has forced the city to extend subsidies to the stadium for the duration of this year.
Although council members have committed to the ball park’s improvement plan, they also decided to put off any actual work on those improvements until fiscal year 2022, although safety and security upgrades are expected to be undertaken this year.
The city has a contract with the MountainStar Sports Group, owner of the Chihuahuas, guaranteeing that it will complete the improvement projects between now and 2025.
By Garry Boulard
