After the most successful year of softball in Auburn history, the athletic department is exploring new seating options at Jane B. Moore Field.
Auburn installed temporary bleachers last season to deal with the increased demand for tickets, but the athletic department is considering building permanent seats where these bleachers stood.
"We're going to look at what we did this year with the temporary bleachers and what economically we should do to make sure that we have seats,” Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs told the Montgomery Advertiser. “Not just seats, quality seats. It's one of the funnest things you can watch, to watch those ladies play. They play so hard. They play so well."
After the bleachers were installed for the Tennessee series in early April, the Tigers began to draw more fans as the team grew in popularity.
All postseason games sold out, and over 1,700 fans showed up for both of Auburn’s games in the NCAA Super Regional.
Coach Clint Myers has expressed his desire to increase the stadium’s capacity.
"How we're going to improve the facility to make it a more positive experience and more fan friendly and more seats," said Myers. "By golly, we got to get more seats in here."
Jacobs said that adding luxury suites on both ends of the press box would be discussed in the future, but general seating is the most immediate need.
"It's sort of like the renovation on the North end [of Jordan-Hare Stadium], let's not box ourselves in on one particular thing," Jacobs said. "We began to look at our overall strategic plan, our overall plan for softball. You want to have the architect draw it so you have the chance to add suites. We'll do the same thing for softball if we thought our clientele would be into purchasing those. Right now, we just need seats."
Myers led Auburn to a school record of 56 wins in 2015. His current contract will expire after the 2018 season, but multiple sources are reporting that a contract extension is in the works that could keep Myers in Auburn until his retirement.
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