Inside Auburn baseballs new Hall of Fame club

[aubiefifty 16,807]

 

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

Noted the beer on tap did not include PBR.

[augolf1716 21,207]

1 minute ago, SaltyTiger said:

Noted the beer on tap did not include PBR.

Yeah I saw that......

[aubiefifty 16,807]

47 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

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[I_M4_AU 7,857]

2 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

Yeah I saw that......

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[augolf1716 21,207]

14 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Is your influence waning?

Looks like it guess that million dollar donation is just not enough anymore.

[I_M4_AU 7,857]

Just now, augolf1716 said:

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Tough times.

[augolf1716 21,207]

Just now, I_M4_AU said:

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[aubiefifty 16,807]

al.com

 

How Auburn baseball’s Mississippi State ties are shaping Plainsman Park’s new look

Published: Feb. 16, 2024, 6:50 a.m.

11–14 minutes

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It’s a windy Friday afternoon in Starkville, Mississippi, as Rhett Hobart — wearing orange and blue — returned to the proclaimed “Carnegie Hall of College Baseball” he’d helped build. It’s January, almost baseball season, and the Mississippi State team is taking batting practice on the field before a scrimmage that day.

In an Auburn athletic department now led with deep ties to Mississippi State, Hobart was one of several Auburn representatives in town before Auburn’s basketball team faced Mississippi State the next day at Humphrey Coliseum.

On this day — exactly three weeks before Auburn’s 2024 opening day — Hobart, now Auburn’s deputy athletic director for external affairs and the administrator directly in charge of baseball, showed off what he’d built.

And he showed how Dudy Noble Field inspired what he’s trying to create four hours east at his new job —the facility he’s about unveil now with those three weeks gone by and opening day here, set for 6 p.m. Friday against Eastern Kentucky.

Auburn’s ties to the Mississippi State baseball team start right at the top. Auburn athletic director John Cohen played baseball as a student at Mississippi State. He was the head coach there from 2009-2016. He was then the Mississippi State athletic director from 2016 until moving to Auburn in 2022.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen speaks as UCLA coach John Savage looks on during a news conference at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, June 23, 2013, ahead of the NCAA College World Series best-of-three baseball finals. Mississippi State and UCLA will play in Game 1 of the finals on Monday. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)AP

Hobart is another Mississippi State alum who has spent more than eight years working in the Bulldogs athletic department with a focus on baseball.

Auburn head baseball coach Butch Thompson was an assistant coach on Cohen’s staff in Starkville from 2009-2015. Scott Foxhall, Auburn’s director of player development, won a national championship in 2021 as the pitching coach at Mississippi State. Auburn’s director of baseball operation Greg Dyre spent 11 seasons at Mississippi State in an administrative role before coming to Auburn in 2016.

Cohen and Hobart led an enormous rebuild of Dudy Noble Field that began in 2017, finished in 2019 and cost more than $60 million. It now is the largest on-campus baseball stadium in the country.

When Hobart walked around his alma mater’s home field in January, he showed the stadium’s Triple Crown Club behind home plate and the Omaha Club on the upper level — with legendary coach Ron Polk’s tobacco-stained table right outside. He walked through the unique outfield lounges to create a tailgate atmosphere inside the stadium and pointed out his family’s own beach-themed setup.

Hobart described the meticulous planning that went into the jewel of the Mississippi State athletic complex. He discussed that while much of this staff’s experience is mostly in baseball, he and Cohen emphasize that Cohen doesn’t want to be viewed as a baseball-only athletic director. They inherited an already-approved $30 million Plainsman Park renovation when he arrived at Auburn, and they were just going to put their touch on it.

An overview of the 70+ seat common eating area in the new Hall of Fame Club set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

This group now leading Auburn saw the highs of a national championship in 2021 at one of the sport’s most historic and winningest programs. But the goal, Hobart said, is not to copy and paste the Mississippi State project, but instead carry over some successful aspects and build a new Plainsman Park in an image that fits in with what Auburn already had.

To take on this project from a different perspective, Cohen, Hobart and Auburn’s staff looked back at their project at Dudy Noble Field, but also flew to Chicago to see the Maker’s Mark Barrell Room premium club at the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field. It is one of several Major League Baseball stadiums where Auburn took inspiration when crafting its newest premium seating option.

Auburn's new Hall of Fame Club is set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

And that brings Cohen and Hobart to the opening of the first major facilities construction project since they came to Auburn. Auburn’s new Hall of Fame Club is set to open Friday for Auburn’s season-opening game against Eastern Kentucky. Auburn legend and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas will be there for the ribbon cutting.

The newly constructed area is underneath the first baseline stands that used to be indoor batting cages. It’s the first step in an ongoing renovation for years to come at Plainsman Park.

The club features one main bar dubbed “Frank’s Favorites” and another smaller bar near a collection of common area tables. The main bar will sell Thomas’ own line of vodka and several of Thomas’ favorite drinks. There are about 70 first-come-first-serve seats inside the club, Hobart said.

Hobart said the area near the Frank Thomas bar is meant to resemble a “speakeasy,” or a “Chicago steakhouse.”

Whereas the table area is meant to resemble a brewery.

Farnk's Favorites will be the full bar in the new Hall of Fame Club set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

The whole club is Thomas-themed. Doors are branded with his No. 35. A plaque on the wall is made to look like Thomas’ MLB Hall of Fame plaque, just with more Auburn-catered history written on it.

Auburn created a Hall of Fame replica plaque for legendary Tiger and MLB Hall of Famer Frank Thomas as part of the new Hall of Fame Club set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

There will be a merchandise stand selling Hall of Fame Club-specific gear, sold exclusively to fans with a ticket to the club.

The design is laden with brick to blend in with the existing stadium and campus architecture. Whereas the renovation at Dudy Noble Field was meant to handle record crowds, the now-completed portions of Auburn’s upgrades are more intimate and opulent — aware of the stark differences between programs in Starkville and Auburn.

“This has more detail on the project,” Hobart said compared to the Dudy Noble Field renovations.

Yet Auburn’s Hall of Fame Club will accommodate 45 more seats than Mississippi State’s Triple Crown Club, Hobart said.

Fans can buy two types of tickets to enter the club. The cheaper option is to get an access pass which can range between $25 and $90 depending on the game. That ticket gets access to the club and covers the cost of all food and non-alcoholic drinks. Those passes do not guarantee a seat, but do give access to standing room areas behind home plate.

There are other seating options set up including couches underneath the home plate stands.

Couches set up underneath the home plate stands at Plainsman Park as part of the new Hall of Fame Club set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

Hobart said if, by the third inning, a ticketed fan has not occupied their reserved seat then fans with just an access pass can take the available chair. Auburn hopes to sell around 175 of these passes early on as a test phase for what number of standing-room tickets makes sense and fits comfortably.

There are 107 seats behind home plate, with tickets for a reserved seat ranging between $50-$150 depending on the game.

The seats behind home plate, Hobart said, are the exact same chairs that the Atlanta Braves used for fans behind home plate at their home stadium, Truist Park. The only difference? The chairs in Atlanta are green and the ones at Auburn are navy blue.

Every seat has a personal power outlet.

The home plate area seating is the most visually similar part of the new Plainsman Park to what Cohen and Hobart built at Dudy Noble Field. The renovation in Starkville packed as many people as possible behind home plate giving a visually appealing look to the crowd with a low backstop, rows of reserved seating and significant space for standing-room tickets as part of its Triple Crown Club.

Auburn deputy athletic director Rhett Hobart shows new seats behind home plate at Plainsmark Park's new Hall of Fame Club set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

The high backstop of past seasons at Plainsman Park is now gone, replaced by a similar low wall but instead of the padding at Dudy Noble Field, Auburn’s is fully brick with no pads at all. That could be a significant factor in games this season as any wild throws or pitches will quickly ricochet back.

The renovation also drastically shrinks the space between home plate and the backstop wall. It is now the smallest backstop in the SEC.

Plainsman Park's new Hall of Fame Club is set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season. Auburn gave local reporters a tour of the new facility on Feb. 15, 2024.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

The key difference from Starkville is the seating arrangement. Hobart said the seats at Dudy Noble Field are centered around home plate. They did not do that at Auburn. After the Mississippi State project, Hobart said he realized they could have made the stadium more intimidating. So, the 107 Auburn seats behind home plate are shifted toward the visitor’s dugout.

It means there is a chair and standing room area directly next to the visitor’s dugout with no net or separation between stands and an opposing team.

Auburn positioned seats in its new Hall of Fame Club directly next to the visitor's dugout to create an uncomfortable atmosphere for opponents. The Club is set to open Feb. 16 for Auburn's first game of the 2024 season.Matt Cohen | mcohen@al.com

“Butch talks about how much teams love to play here,” Hobart said. “We want them to love to come play here, but we also want it to make it a hard place to play. There’s a balance to that. You want to create a good, fun environment. But a place also they don’t want to come play because of how hard it is to play. We’re trying to make the stadium a little more intimidating.”

That shows in the seating design behind home plate. It shows in building a student section in right-center field where the rowdiest students will be peering directly into the visiting team’s bullpen.

Hobart finished the Plainsman Park tour back inside, in front of the “Frank’s Favorites” bar. He spoke to local Auburn reporters there, three weeks after showing AL.com around Dudy Noble and just over 24 hours before the first pitch of the season and the first drinks are sold.

It’s one step down in a continuing series of renovations completely modernizing and expanding Plainsman Park. For an athletic department quite in tune with its Starkville ties and baseball expertise, this first phase was done with self-awareness to do something different. To take what’s worked before and make it well, uniquely Auburn.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com