Overview:
New 60-foot-wide video board and remodeled clubhouse are Phase 1 of a project that would lead to a new stadium concourse for the 30-year-old facility
The Little Ballpark That Could will finally get an overhaul.
Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, the butt of jokes for shortcomings that include (ahem) port-a-potties that overflow during well-attended baseball games, can soon flush those troubles away.
UC Santa Barbara announced last week that it has received an anonymous donation of $15 million to upgrade the facility and give its nationally ranked Gauchos a pipeline to even greater achievement.
“This is such a significant gift and commitment that moves the needle for us,” gushed coach Andrew Checketts, whose club was ranked No. 24 in last week’s Perfect Game preseason poll.
“It’s really validating for our staff and the work we’ve been putting in … and for our players, past and present, and the work they’ve put in.
“I don’t think this donation comes without that success on the field, and that’s ultimately driven by players.”
UCSB went the full nine yards — or rather, nine innings — to have Uyesaka Stadium play host to one of last year’s 16 NCAA Regionals.
The facility won the bid even though, at age 30, it had yet to fully grow into its master plan.
The Gauchos met last spring’s challenge by hauling in temporary bleachers for the fans, tables for the media, and even a portable video board for those accustomed to modern technology.
And although the Gauchos were shut out in the regional final by Oregon, 3-0, they could honestly score the experience as a home run.
The opposing coaches from Oregon, Fresno State and the University of San Diego all “volunteered up positive reports,” Checketts said.
“It’s an intimate ballpark because the stands are on top of you,” he pointed out. “You add all the stands in the outfield, it felt like there was a lot of people there … It had a lot of energy.”
He’s hoping that the stadium will keep that same intimacy even as it increases its 1,000-seat capacity.
“A metal stadium with a lot of bleacher seating is not what we’re interested in,” Checketts said.
“We’re interested in chairbacks and unique, park-like settings that are unique to Santa Barbara.”
Caesar’s Palace
UCSB, which had been elevated into national baseball prominence by former coach Al Ferrer in the 1980s, was forced to cut corners when it built the stadium in 1994.
No large donations followed the initial gift of $250,000 supplied by the late Caesar Uyesaka, a longtime Gaucho booster who at one time had been president of a minor-league baseball franchise in Santa Barbara.
Restrooms, concession stand, clubhouse and stadium lights were the proverbial players to be named later.
The original plans for the press box were scaled down to those of a broom closet.
Bob Brontsema, Ferrer’s successor, got the ball rolling for improvements after guiding the Gauchos to the regionals in 2001.
They included the construction of a clubhouse as well as a player development facility for batting and pitching that the donor named in Brontsema’s honor.
Checketts has been determined to check the remaining boxes on the stadium’s to-do list ever since he took over in 2012.
He stoked enthusiasm in the program by advancing the Gauchos to seven of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments.
That included a 2016 trip to the College World Series.
ESPN still shows replays of the walk-off, grand-slam home run that pinch-hitter Sam Cohen hit at the Louisville SuperRegional to punch UCSB’s ticket to Omaha.
Checketts’ club had been deemed worthy to play host to an NCAA Regional the previous year.
Uyesaka Stadium fell short of the prerequisites, however. UCSB was forced to hold the event 170 miles south of campus in Lake Elsinore.
That regional proved to be more of a home-field advantage for San Diego State and USC. They promptly ousted the Gauchos from the double-elimination event by defeating them in successive games.
Uyesaka Stadium became more regional-worthy after lights were installed in 2020 at the cost of $1.6 million.
A $2.8 million project to replace the playing surface and its irrigation was completed last year, rectifying a deficiency that ballparkreviews.com had brought to light a few seasons earlier.
“The infield looks like they hold demolition derbies between games,” reviewer Doug Smith said at the time. “There were a couple of bad hops today that both shortstops made good adjustments on.
“The infield looks as hard as a rock — not a place you’d feel comfortable sliding.”
The Big West Conference didn’t feel UCSB had all the comforts of home for its new postseason tournament when it awarded bids in December 2023.
This year’s inaugural event will be held at Cal State Fullerton, with subsequent tournaments set for Long Beach State and UC Irvine.
Back to Drawing Board
UCSB priced a combined renovation of the baseball and softball facilities at $40 million in 2019.
“We need to go back and update that,” Checketts said. “The grand master plan, which includes the softball facility and everything, requires us to do more strategic planning.
“But I am hopeful that we can get the video board up this season and a clubhouse refresh done soon.”
He’s not sure when the stadium’s actual reconstruction will begin.
“I would love to say that, at the end of the season, we are moving some dirt and doing something,” Checketts said. “Whether that is realistic, based on some of the processes we have to go through here, I don’t know.
“It’s above my pay grade.”
His hope is that the erector-set of metal grandstands are torn down and replaced with a curved stadium concourse.
“We’ve got to figure out whether bathrooms and concessions are stand-alone between softball and baseball or whether they’re connected with pathways connecting to softball,” he said. “The architects will have to figure out how we do that.
“But in our mind, the goal is that we start behind home plate with the seating and the stands as opposed to adding on.
“I feel like the amount of money we have should allow us to build something nice behind home plate that’s new.”
Pitching a Curveball
Checketts is looking for something different than the typical, cookie-cutter ballpark.
“We have a footprint issue where it’s pretty tight between the parking lot and some of those other fields,” he said. “Ideally, it wouldn’t be a double-decker stadium, but there might be a portion that still needs to be.
“Some of the nice perks about a curved ballpark is that there are unique seating areas and viewing to it.”
He envisions a more aesthetic version of the temporary, right-field grandstands that proved so popular with fans during last year’s regional.
“Not bleacher seating, but something with berms that would be more park-like,” Checketts said. “It would be in an area that ties into the ballpark seating without having to go around the backside.”
The area beyond left and center fields will change dramatically in the fall of 2027 when the San Benito Housing Complex opens its doors.
It will house 2,250 students on a five-acre site not far beyond the outfield fence, at the corner of Mesa and Stadium roads.
That project began last fall with the removal of the buildings that housed UCSB’s Facilities Management division and Transportation & Parking Services.
“There are some positives to that,” Checketts said. “We’re going to have all those students and student traffic … That part has the chance to be really cool.”
The berms beyond the outfield fence will be within the shortest of strolls.
“We’d have the ability to accommodate 2,000 for a post-season tournament,” Checketts pointed out.
“It should help us get to the point where we’re more turnkey and can bid on the Big West Tournament.”
It took a very long while for UCSB to get to this point.
Luckily for the Gauchos, they didn’t lose their coach in the meantime when he was courted by such monied programs as USC, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State and Washington.
“The lights took a lot longer than I had anticipated,” Checketts said. “It was seven years after we played in our first regional.
“That gave me a little shot of reality that these things just take some time. As a coach, you always want things to happen yesterday.
“We’re realistic now about where we’re at and how things take time.”
But it would stink like a Uyesaka Stadium outhouse if the wheels of progress remain sluggish even while greased by a $15 million donation.
