Sort of Padres related, and definitely baseball in San Diego related. University of San Diego has announced that after the current baseball season they will be replacing the current Cunningham Stadium with a brand new state of the art ballpark. The change is being driven by the fact that 1,200 seat, no lights, Cunningham Stadium is not up to NCAA D1 standards and cannot host post season play. The new park, to be named Fowler Park is going to be built on the site of Cunningham Stadium. They hired Populous (HOK Sport), the same guys who designed PETCO to design it and the results are pretty spectacular for a college venue.

The new park will feature lights for night games, 1,700 regular fixed seats with expansion room for up to 3,000 to host post season play. It will also feature a new entry plaza next to Jenny Craig Pavilion rather than just the handicap ramp the current stadium uses. It also is going to have 2 suites, a kids party deck, and a new clubhouse with new offices and locker rooms for the coaches and players. The whole thing will end up costing around $13 million almost all of it courtesy of the Fowler family (for whom the ballpark is named and I've been informed are part owners of the Pads). To continue honoring ex-coach Cunningham however the field itself will now be named Cunningham Field. Overall it's a great addition to the two great venues we already have in San Diego for baseball at PETCO Park and Tony Gwynn Stadium at SDSU. Opening day is slated for 2013.

via media.utsandiego.com

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/28/new-yard-next-year-usd/?page=2#article