A Full Tour of Oregon Baseball’s PK Park
The University of Oregon recently completed the installation of a new FieldTurf field at PK Park, one of the most renowned venues in college baseball, and it’s stunning!
Trusted at the facility since 2009, our FieldTurf DoublePlay Series was designed by the FieldTurf Innovation & Performance Center (FIPC) by testing and analyzing some of the nation’s elite clay, grass and turf facilities to study ball-surface interaction, speed and consistency. Then we designed our new series to emulate the best results. Our journey rewrote the book on testing and product development.
Together with our friends at Sports Dissected, we toured the $19.2 million facility with the University of Oregon’s Head Baseball Coach, Mark Wasikowski.
Here’s a preview of our conversation with Coach Wasikowski:
So we're standing here right here in PK park. People get the name confused. And why is that? *
Everybody associates the University Of Oregon with Phil Knight, his excellence, Nike, you know, and that's PK, there's your initials. Ironically, the most influential person at our field is Pat Kilkenny. And so the PK here is for specifically Pat Kilkenny, we've got it named Pat Kilkenny Park for that reason. And he's the man.
You guys have a tremendous relationship with FieldTurf and they created the surfacing, how true does the infill play?
The infield's unbelievable. They took the technology and all the information they gained out of years of being in the business and they crushed it with this product.
*You guys have a long-standing relationship with FieldTurf. They've installed everything here including Autzen Stadium and they've done stuff with the indoor practice facility. How has it been working with them over the years? *
They're as good as they get. Their customer service is fantastic. You know, if we ever have an issue whatsoever, they're out here the next day and that's all you can expect is customer service like that, true professionals and really good people too.
*Now back to the name, PK park, you guys have created a logo for him. Kind of describe how that logo came about and what it stands for. *
What we tried to do is we, we tried to really incorporate everything that is a part of him in that logo. And so specifically, yeah, there's a diamond in the logo, but there's also a Celtic knot, which matches his not-for-profit organization. The lucky duck foundation down in San Diego, which helps feed the homeless and serves underprivileged and just all sorts of different people down in San Diego that are in need. You know, the Celtic nod is basically his heritage and where he came from his upbringing in the Oregon, oh, with his family. And you know, he's a, he's a blue-collar guy that came from basically nothing and a wealth that he's made. He's earned.
What is the game experience like here? I mean, you guys have seating areas all over the place, amazing foliage in the background. What is a game like at PK park?
Well, it's awesome, you know, there's two beer gardens here for the fans to be able to come and enjoy some of the Oregon craft beers and, and find food and all that kind of stuff around this area. It's close to the field. It feels like the fans are right on top of you. You know, it seats over 4,500 people, uh, without standing room. And the super regionals were hosted here. They bring in temporary seating to put behind the fence because there's so much fan interest. It's just an awesome place for the guys.
So we talked about the different seating options here at the park, down on the surface level. We're now here on the suite level and noticing from the different angles. What do you think is the best seat in the house?
Oh, this is the duck blind. This is one of the most popular suites these guys get after it. Pretty good up here in the duck, blind they're former players and just supporters of the program. We love it up here. I don't know if there's bad seat in the park though, to be honest with you, this place is tight. It's all right here up on the field. This is a great view.
Awesome. Awesome coach. Well, we appreciate the time. Thank you for showing us PK park and the awesome Oregon baseball facilities, man. You guys are doing something amazing here.
Yeah. I appreciate you. Thank you very much
Watch the full interview with Coach Wasikowsk
