| JOEDY
McCREARY
Associated Press
JACKSON,
Miss. - City leaders rechristened Smith-Wills
Stadium as a multipurpose facility Monday, claiming
its new
Sprinturf artificial surface will enable the 30-year-old
ballpark to remain competitive and play host to
a varietyof
events. Officials said they envision football,
soccer and baseball games, plus concerts and auto
shows, on the grasslike
turf, beginning with Tuesday night's Mayor's Trophy
game between Mississippi and Mississippi State.
"
This turf, this all-weather surface, is going
to transform this stadium," Mayor Harvey
Johnson said. "It's going to make it very
competitive. We feel this is a premier facility."
Officials showed off the glistening, 110,000-square-foot
Sprinturf surface during a Monday news conference.
One unique quirk: The only dirt between the baselines
is on the pitcher's mound. From a distance, the
basepaths and sliding pits appear to consist of
dirt - but they're actually made of the same grassy
turf that makes up the rest of the field, only
colored brown.
Con Maloney - one of the owners of the Jackson
Senators, the independent minor-league team which
operates the city-owned stadium - said baserunners
need not fear turf burns. "They will slide
better than anything they've slid on before,"
Maloney said. Officials also said they improved
the stadium's lighting during the last month -
something
Mississippi State coach Ron Polk has pushed for.
The $855,000-plus project will allow the 5,200-seat
Smith-Wills to compete with Trustmark Park, Pearl's
6,900- seat still-under-construction home of the
Class AA Mississippi Braves, for sports and other
events. Officials already have football and soccer
configurations ready. The first-base line doubles
as one sideline for football
and soccer, the third-base line will be football's
5-yard line and the third-base coach's box will
represent where
a goal line will be. "We're going to expose
the stadium to any and every need that comes in,"
Jackson Parks
and Recreation Director Ramie Ford said.
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