By Harry Minium 

More than 300 Old Dominion officials, baseball fans and donors gathered on Thursday to celebrate the groundbreaking for the $24 million renovation of the University’s baseball stadium, a facility that will herald a bright new future for ODU baseball.

Work began on the renovation of Bud Metheny Ballpark earlier this year and once complete next year, it will be rechristened as the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex at Bud Metheny Ballpark. 

It will be one of the finest facilities in Virginia and the Sun Belt Conference and will have 2,032 chairback seats, luxury suites, new team locker and training rooms and updated fan amenities.  

Officials paid homage to Dennis Ellmer, the Norfolk native and Hampton Roads businessman and member of the Board of Visitors whose $2.5 million donation was the critical linchpin that allowed construction to move forward. 

But they also praised the members of the 2021 baseball team, for without their success four years ago, the renovation would not have been possible.   

“This journey began not with blueprints or budgets but with heartbreak and hope,” said emcee Ted Alexander, voice of the Monarchs, in his opening remarks. 

The heartbreak occurred in May of 2021 when the Monarchs won the Conference USA title and were seeded 11th in the NCAA Tournament and thus earned the right to host one of 16 NCAA Regionals.  

But because Bud Metheny Ballpark did not meet NCAA standards – the lack of a medical training room, inadequate stadium lighting and a woefully inadequate press box were cited as critical factors – they were forced to play at the University of South Carolina. 

The Monarchs defeated the homestanding Gamecocks, 2-1, before losing to Virginia, 4-3, with a walk-off home run in the 10th inning in the regional final. 

“It was a bitter pill,” said Wood Selig, Ed.D., ODU’s director of athletics. “And it may have cost that 2021 team a trip to the College World Series 

Spurred by that bitter pill, prominent ODU supporters began discussions about a new stadium with Dr. Selig.  

President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., wasn’t yet at ODU, but when Dr. Selig described what had happened, President Hemphill replied, “that will never happen to another ODU baseball team,” Dr. Selig said. 

With President Hemphill’s reassurance, Dr. Selig worked with the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation to begin a fundraising effort. 

Without President Hemphill, the renovation would not have occurred, said Dr. Selig. President Hemphill played a major role in the fundraising effort. He asked the Ellmer family, Dennis and his wife, Jan, to donate, along with other notable ODU donors and supporters. 

He also worked with the Board of Visitors to provide significant funding for the stadium. The University is paying for half of the $24 million renovation. The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation has raised $11 million of the $12 million athletics must fund.  

The groundbreaking was held on the stadium field. Much of the stadium itself has been demolished and replaced with ditches marked to point where foundation will be poured. But a rendering of the new facility behind the podium allowed fans to see just what a major upgrade it will be. 

When it opened in 1983, “The Bud,” as ODU’s baseball stadium has been known, was among the finest college baseball facilities in the Southeast. It was named for former ODU baseball coach and athletic director Bud Metheny.  

In the 42 years since, other schools built larger and more modern facilities while The Bud had few upgrades. 

Fast forward again to 2026 and the stadium will have all that’s required to host an NCAA regional and much, much more. 

The old press box has been removed and will be replaced by a much more spacious and modern facility. In all there will be seats for 30 people, including the writing and broadcast media. 

There will also be a large, state-of-the-art medical training facility adjacent to ODU’s new locker room and fiber optic lines are being installed for ESPN telecasts. New lighting was installed in 2024. 

ODU’s previous locker room was a worn-out facility with dated wooden lockers. “It was so bad, we didn’t show it to recruits,” said Chris Finwood, ODU’s baseball head coach.  

Next year, the players will dress in a spacious, well-lit room with individual lockers with a lighted feature with the “OD” baseball logo on the ceiling.  

Next door will be a players’ lounge with large-screen TVs. The coaches will get larger and more opulent offices and a meeting room. 

The Sun Belt Conference is among the nation’s best baseball conferences. The league placed four teams in the NCAA Tournament three of the last four seasons and this spring, both Coastal Carolina, the 2016 national champion, and Southern Miss hosted regionals.  

“We will be proud to show this stadium to recruits,” said Finwood, who added that his 2025-26 recruiting class is one of ODU’s finest, he said, because of the stadium renovation. 

“We had to have a new stadium to remain competitive in the Sun Belt. And thanks to so many people here today, we’ll have that stadium next season.” 

Fans will benefit as much as the players. The stadium’s bleacher seating, which can be cold in February and boiling hot in the spring, is being replaced with individual chairback seats that while not heated, will be far more comfortable.  

Directly behind home plate, at ground level, will be a 200-seat indoor/outdoor club that has been named for long-time ODU donor Barry Kornblau. It will be similar to the Priority Automotive Club at ODU’s S.B. Ballard Stadium. 

ODU will also have a field-level suite available for donors to purchase.  

Restrooms and concessions facilities will be modernized and enlarged. 

ODU officials were determined that the entrance to the stadium would be attractive, a gateway of sorts to Monarch athletics. It will have a brick façade, using the orange brick used to most ODU facilities, with concrete arched doorways.  

It will be named the Commander Russell Turner and Family Entryway Plaza in honor of the former Naval aviator.  

The scoreboard will be named in honor of Mitch Burton and the Hackney Foundation. 

Dr. Selig also thanked Rudy Middleton and Elza Mitchum, both long-time ODU donors and Board of Visitors members, for making significant contributions to the stadium. Mitchum “is a heck of a fundraiser,” Dr. Hemphill said, “He was truly engaged and challenged a lot of his friends to step forward and support this project.” 

So far, there have been more than 120 individual donations. 

Dr. Selig announced the most recent donation at the groundbreaking. The field will be called TowneBank Field thanks to a generous donation from TowneBank whose Executive Chairman, G. Robert Aston Jr., attended the groundbreaking.  

“Today would not be possible without the generous donors and dedicated fans that stepped forward in a profound way and unprecedented manner,” President Hemphill said. 

“At the forefront is the Ellmer family, led by Dennis and Jan. When you talk about community and family, I can tell for certain that those are strong pillars and points of pride for the Ellmers.” 

Dennis Ellmer became a significant ODU athletics donor in 2007, when the University announced it would begin playing football, said Jena Virga, executive director of the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation. 

Eventually, he began to get involved with the academic side of ODU and last year made a $20 million donation toward ODU’s health sciences department. It is now known as the Ellmer School of Health Sciences. The $20 million has been earmarked for scholarships.  

“As donors, athletics is originally what drew us to campus, but shortly after we saw the manner in which the university was committed to advancing and supporting the broader community,” Dennis Ellmer said. 

“We developed a true appreciation for the critical role that ODU actively plays in shaping the future of so many. 

“It is an honor to be a part of a project like this.”