New Oklahoma softball field being expanded by additional 1,200 seats

The three-time defending national champion Oklahoma softball team will be moving into Love’s Field, the team’s all-new softball stadium for the opening of the 2024 season.

On Friday, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione announced in a press release that the new softball facility is being expanded to a seating capacity of 4,200 from the original plan of 3,000.

"“Because we know the demand for OU softball is high, we took great care to increase the capacity wherever we could while maintaining the overall fan experience,” Castiglione said in a statement.“Since the start, we’ve approached the design of Love’s Field with our fan’s in mind,” he said."

The capacity of Marita Hynes Field, which has been the home of OU softball since 1998, is 1,600.

The new Love’s Field complex will span 44,000 square feet, which includes a 10,700 square-foot indoor team space, training facility and locker room. The total construction is estimated to cost $27 million.

The Love family, which owns Love’s Travel Stops, donated $12 million toward the project and was awarded the naming rights to the new OU softball complex.

This past week, the Sooner softball team toured the new facility — which is still under construction but is expected to be available for the opening of the next college softball season in the spring — this past week.

"“It was hard to comprehend the beauty and scope of what we were looking at, considering where we played when I started coaching here,” said head coach Patty Gasso."

Before moving to Marita Hynes Field in 1998, the Sooner softball program originally played its games at Reaves Park.

Oklahoma has won six of the last nine NCAA Women’s College World Series and are the favorites to add an eighth overall national championship and unprecedented fourth consecutive title in 2024.