Blue Wahoos Stadium Going Through Home Improvement Projects Before Season Begins 

With the team’s 2025 season less than 30 days away, the largest home improvement project at Blue Wahoos Stadium is progressing toward completion.

Most of the enhancements are in areas not visible from the outside, or the seating bowl, but necessities to ensure the team’s future as direct affiliation with Major League Baseball.

The two biggest renovations are complete remodeling of visiting team clubhouse and installation of two indoor batting cages that will enable both the Blue Wahoos players and visiting team players to have separate areas for pregame workouts.

As part of the Blue Wahoos’ 10-year agreement in the Professional Development League (PDL) license contract for Minor League Baseball teams, the improvements will help meet requirements set by Major League Baseball for facility needs.

This season begins the fifth year of the Blue Wahoos affiliation as the Miami Marlins Double-A team in the Southern League.

“It’s significant, because of the fact if you don’t meet PDL requirements, you lose your baseball team,” said Blue Wahoos team president Jonathan Griffith. “So it’s very significant that we make sure we follow all of the PDL rules to meet and exceed those (requirements).

“To the point of exceeding, we’re going to have one of the largest, if not the largest, visitors’ clubhouse areas in Double-A baseball. I believe we’ll be the only one with its own weight room, which is taking it to another level. That way we will hit all of the marks.”

The Blue Wahoos have partnered with Pensacola-based Hanto & Clarke General Contractors to handle the engineering and construction.

An area formerly known as Imagination Station on the ground level, third base side of the stadium has been transformed into a connecting open space with the current visitors’ clubhouse. This will be where the new weight room, new dining area and visiting coaches offices will be located.

In the past, visiting teams have needed to use the dark hallway outside the clubhouse entrance to lift weights or perform agility stretching exercises. That will change beginning with the season-opening series April 4-6 when the Biloxi Shuckers visit Blue Wahoos Stadium.

Here are the improvement projects, which are either under construction or soon to be developed for the ballpark.

--- The visitors’ clubhouse will get new carpeting, wood lockers to replace the original blue metal lockers, new televisions, enlarged coaches’ offices, a separate weight and workout area, enlarged dining area and more space for support staff.

An April 1 target date is set for completion and usage.

”We basically removed a couple walls (where the Imagination Station was located), so we’re almost doubling the size of the visitors lockerroom and clubhouse,” said Tyler “TJ” Johnson, the Blue Wahoos’ assistant general manager. “It will be a much larger area for visiting teams.

“Our plan is to blow them away. We’ll have new couches, cabinets, new finishes, the wood lockers, the new carpeting. It will look really good.”

--- The Blue Wahoos clubhouse will get new wood lockers for the players, the coaches offices will move into a much larger space, complete with new carpeting.

--- The two indoor batting cages will connect inside a prefabricated building to be attached to the stadium. Included in the building will be an audio/visual room for teams to utilize in analyzing swings and player batting stances.

“It will be nice to have two indoor cages and it gives us more overall indoor space,” Griffith said. “This area will be over 5,000 square feet of indoor space. That will be beneficial to do other things apart from the season as well, but the big one is being able to meet the PDL requirements. It will give us two cages next to each other in a separate building.

--- An expanded women’s locker room, big enough to accommodate 10, which can include trainers, fitness specialists, female coaches or visiting female staff members.

“It will give us 40-percent more space, and as more women come into the sport, we’ll have an area large enough to meet future requirements,” Griffith said.

--- A remodeled lobby entrance for the Blue Wahoos front office. This will include a ticket reception area, separate from the box office on the third base side.

“We’ll almost double the size of that area,” Johnson said. “Our plan is for a small merchandise storefront as well, separate from our team store on the concourse. This will enable us to sell some T-shirts, hats, other items whenever the front office is open. We’ll add some Blue Wahoos memorabilia to increase the wow factor.”

--- There also will be new blue padding install on rails from the dugouts on each side, all the way down each baseline, as well as a new batter’s eye windscreen in centerfield.

The Blue Wahoos began working with Hanto & Clarke in October for initial planning.

“It is exciting to see it come from papers and drawings, and now to get visuals of what it will look like,” Johnson said. “I think we will have some of the top visiting facilities in all minor league baseball, so it will be huge to see that.

“And the new batting cages giving our players some of the best facilities they can have to improve their game and get better.”

Team owners Quint and Rishy Studer have been involved in the entire stadium enhancement procession. Their input has led to new ideas and further improvement plans.

“They’ve been a huge influence,” Johnson said. “This is is a big initiative the we are undertaking and facilities are something that means the most to Quint. He wants to have the best, the top of the line to make everything look great.

“He’s and Rishy have been wanting to make sure everything looks just right. They have been great.”