As the second summer session winds down, so too does the constructive refurbishment of the Wolfpack’s outdoor tennis facilities. The Curtis & Jacqueline Dail Outdoor Tennis Stadium has undergone a series of renovations made with tennis fans in mind, and should be ready for use this fall.
The restructured design joins other State facilities named after the Dails and features a unique entrance plaza, six side-by-side courts, seating for over 1000 spectators, updated lighting fixtures, and a new scoreboard.
Head Men’s Tennis Coach Jon Choboy , who took part in designing the stadium years ago with former player and design major David Rozek , said he is very excited to put the new courts to use.
“It’s going to be great,” Choboy said. “There are some unique things our stadium will have that other stadiums do not, like an elevated entrance walkway, which is about 10 feet off the ground, across the street from the baseball field.”
Choboy said visitors will enter the stadium from the top in the parking lot and will walk along the outer edge of the stadium along the elevated walkway.
The entrance will also include a lift elevator for handicap accessibility into the stadium.
Once inside, returning fans will immediately notice a much more enjoyable seating arrangement. Previously, the seating had been in the form of bleachers atop the hill next to the tennis courts. The redesign features grandstand seating directly next to each of the six courts with a convenient way of moving from court to court without disturbing other spectators.
Choboy shed some light on the design around the fan seating.
“Its seating is unique,” Choboy said. “There’s a very large mezzanine that goes behind [the stands] so you can quickly go around to another court and sit down in the bench-backed seating. It will give different people a way to move around a bit. It’s really cool how it’s set up.”
The construction currently in progress mostly involves finishing the seating and visiting team amenity structures, such as the locker rooms and restrooms, before the final touches are placed on the actual playing surface.
“They are just about ready to lay down the stone and put the asphalt down,” Choboy said. “The stadium itself is pretty much done. The light posts are up already. They have some things to do under the stadium, some painting, finishing up some fixtures, and drywall.
Choboy said the biggest task left to do is laying down the courts, which should happen in the next week or so.
However, the court-laying process is sensitive to weather conditions. In ideal circumstances, the court will take about 30 days to cure and 10 more for the color coating to apply.
No matter when the courts are finally finished, the men’s tennis team will already be training for their spring season.
“They’ll start individual workouts the first week they’re back to school,” Choboy said. “At the beginning of September we’ll actually start official team practice. We’ll be able to practice on the courts in the fall so it just depends on when they give it back to us.”
Choboy also said it won’t be until around October 5 before everything is completed, but the courts will probably be playable a couple weeks before prior to that date. As a backup plan, Choboy has the courts at Pullen Park reserved for the month of September.
