HispanicBusiness

After serving as the home of the storied Mud Hens minor league baseball team for the past 10 seasons, Fifth Third Field is getting a face lift.

Workers from the Lathrop Company began Monday to renovate the press box area of the ballpark, which opened in 2002 and has been widely recognized as one of the best minor-league ballparks in the country.

Ray Benjamin, manager of special projects division for Lathrop, said the project will be completed in time for the Mud Hens' exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, April 4.

"First, we've in the process of demolishing the existing press box," Benjamin explained. "Then we are going to create a new press box.

"We're going to open up a portion of the area so that people walking in the suite level can see the field. And some of the things that go on in the press box."

Mud Hens general manager Joe Napoli, who also oversaw construction of the ballpark, said the idea for the changes to the stadium came from reaction to the recently built home of the Walleye, the Huntington Center.

"What we learned from the Huntington Center is that people really like the Lighthouse Lounge," he said.

"People at the suite level like that open view of the ice, so we're going to duplicate that at Fifth Third Field."

The press box area will include more glass for walls, giving fans an opportunity to watch television and radio production of the games, as well as workers running the scoreboards.

"When it came to the Club Level, we wanted to do something dramatic based on the 'behinds the scenes' tours," Napoli said. "The idea is to take that tour and make it more of a public experience, something that every fan can enjoy.

"What do fans like to see? All the activities that are kind of 'mysterious' to them, like producing a TV broadcast or peering into the press box to see what is going on."

Past renovations to Fifth Third Field include the installation of a scoreboard behind the fence in right-center, "ribbon" scoreboards along both the first- and third-base lines, creation of a second banquet area on the fourth floor of the building that houses the Mud Hens' offices, directly above "The Roost," and updated technology throughout the ballpark.

"When we built Fifth Third Field, we always took into account that, at some point in its life, we would want to change some things to keep it fresh and new," Napoli said.

Napoli declined to discuss the cost of the project, but said the project wasn't something the club jumped into quickly.

"We probably started thinking about this roughly 18 months ago," he said. "We really took our time with it, kicking around different concepts that might work.

"We sat down with The Collaborative, a local architectural firm, and we had a lot of fun with that. The entire staff participated with this project, and we tried to survey people to find out what would be of interest to our fans."

The goal, Napoli said, is to make that suite level a "must-see" portion of the ballpark.

"What we are trying to do is to make this area at the club level a pre- during- and post-game destination," he said. "They are going to be entertained. They are going to watch the broadcasters interview people, and watch how the broadcasts take place

"We're hoping that people will react favorably to this."

Napoli said the club also is discussing other changes to the ballpark, but declined to discuss them further.