Meanwhile, the college baseball team in Milwaukee has to weather the consequences of an obsolete field with no ability to produce revenue.

Just a couple of months.

That’s the amount of time that passes from the beginning of the college baseball season to the end of the college baseball season. Schools usually begin play in late February and finish their regular seasons during exam week. This season, the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee opened their season at the Jacksonville Invitational in Florida on Feb. 22nd, and they will close their regular season just short of a month from now.

In just under three months of play, Milwaukee played their first home game in the second half of the season, the 31st date on the schedule.

They would have played their 28th, 29th, and 30th games at Henry Aaron Field, but the area was being pounded by rain, and the playing surface was too wet for games.

The team was forced to move their “home-opening” series to Chicago’s Les Miller Field, the real home of the University of Illinois at Chicago, also known as the Panthers’ arch-nemesis.

But let’s back up here. Why wasn’t the school able to play at “The Hank”? The surface was too wet, which meant moving to Chicago. But wait a minute. Chicago had the same weather we got. Well, the fact of the matter is that Les Miller Field sports FieldTurf, the revolutionary fake grass that allows them to dry their field for play in a fraction of the time it would take to get the Hank ready for action. The Metrodome in Minnesota and Camp Randall Stadium are another couple venues that have switched to FieldTurf in recent years. This allowed UIC to play their first home series in early March, a full month before UWM took the field at the Hank.

Baseball isn’t just another sport at other D-I schools in the NCAA. Dozens of them have been able to turn baseball into a revenue-producing sport (the other ones being football and men’s basketball). Thousands of fans pour into dozens of college baseball venues every spring.

Meanwhile, the college baseball team in Milwaukee has to weather the consequences of an obsolete field with no ability to produce revenue.

The time has come where the university has to commit to its baseball team. Being the only D-I school in the state with baseball (Sorry Badger, Golden Eagle, and Phoenix fans) comes with the responsibility to market a worthy product for Milwaukee baseball fans.

The cost of building a serious baseball field that could produce revenue for this university could reach $10 million. Les Miller Field cost UIC $9 million, however, and that also includes a softball field, soccer field, and tennis courts for other UIC sports. So if UWM is looking for the space to build only a baseball stadium, the bill could be much lower.

Possible spaces for the university to explore building such a stadium include the old Rank & Son dealership just south of the current Henry Aaron Field, as well as Esta Brook Park just east of the Milwaukee River right across from the Capitol/Humboldt park and ride. Perhaps moving a bunch of the schedule to Miller Park is the answer—many big time college teams would come up in March to play UWM in a Major League Baseball stadium—but that might prove a little costly.

In any case, the university needs to commit the resources to find a permanent, revenue-producing home for its baseball team, preferably close to campus like Esta Brook Park. The Hank is a glorified high-school diamond. In May, a new scoreboard will be working for the first time in years. But small improvements like dugouts, backstops, and scoreboards won’t suffice. The Milwaukee Panthers need a serious home for baseball, and now is the time to commit.

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