Baseball official gives insight into new Carolina Stadium

By Drew Daniels
Edited by Nick McCormac
Feb. 25, 2009

As the warm suns of spring return to South Carolina, Gamecock baseball fans are enjoying a national pastime in a state-of-the-art setting.

The new 6,400-seat Carolina Stadium opened for business Feb. 21. Compared to other collegiate stadiums and international venues, this one is impressive, says Andrew Kittick, a University of South Carolina assistant media relations director.

And Kittick has seen a few stadiums.

During his time in the media department, Kittick has worked on USC's media staff for the 2002, 2003 and 2004 College World Series, as well as five NCAA Super Regional tournaments and six NCAA Regional tournaments.

He has also seen the top stadiums other nations have had to offer while working on the media relations staff at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and the 2008 games in Beijing, China. He says Carolina Stadium is "an amazing facility" and on par with those.

Kittick says that Gamecock fans will have a more enjoyable experience at Carolina Stadium because there's more room to spread out.

"For the fans, you have a much wider concourse," said Kittick. "At Sarge Frye you are kind of packed in, but here you can move around the entire stadium and still see the ball field."

Sarge Frye Field, the stadium where the Gamecocks used to play, only had 5,000 seats.

Carolina Stadium is also packed with new amenities for players. The stadium offers a new expanded weight room, an improved pro-style locker room and four indoor batting tunnels.

"As a player, you have everything you need here to be able to succeed out on the field," said Kittick.

And the fans are coming out to the new stadium. The stadium's opening weekend drew two sellout crowds and averaged 6,980 attendees per game, with the team winning all three games.