The Current Sauce

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Miller Daniel The newly completed and landscaped gate and ticket office at Brown-Stroud field greets NSU baseball fans before each game.

The 2008 track and field season is winding down, but workers are gearing up for construction at the Walter P. Ledet Track and Field facility. The new fences and gates under construction are part of the extensive face-lifts NSU is giving to its athletic facilities.

The NSU Soccer Complex, Brown-Stroud Field, NSU baseball home field and NSU Softball complex have also been updated.

The track and field complex has seen its share of problems and renovations throughout the years.

This is not the first time the facility has received renovations. The NSU track team originally ran on a cinder oval in old Demon Stadium before it was renovated and eventually renamed Turpin Stadium, according to nsudemons.com. The stadium is also on the agenda of facilities that will receive an update. The field's artificial turf is due for resurfacing.

In 1977, the Ledet complex officially opened. After resurfacing in 1987 and 1995, drainage problems eventually led to damage that closed the stadium between 2002 and 2006.

In 2007 the facility reopened for competition with a world-class track and a new layout for field events to help alleviate the drainage problems.

The most recent renovations - brick pillars as the framework for new fences and gates - are part of a plan set in motion by the athletic department earlier in the school year.

The soccer complex and Brown-Stroud Field are the furthest along in construction, each sporting a new gate and ticket office.

Brown-Stroud Field, built in 1939, has undergone several renovations over the past few years. In addition to the new gate and ticket office, the park also received a new sound system this season.

Construction on the softball field is in early stages, as is the track facility.

The cost of the project was originally set at $700,000 when The Current Sauce reported on the upgrades on Sept. 26 2007.

Also in the plan is a $2 million project to provide new scoreboards for every sport except tennis. Renovations will continue during the summer and fall.

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