Alumni Colosseum and Legion Baseball

Tearing up the dirt infield

There is some confusion out there as to what is being done at Alumni Colosseum and how it affects the Butte Miners American Legion Baseball team that plays there.

First, some background: The State of Montana owns Alumni Colosseum because Montana owns Montana Tech. Legion Ball was leasing the land and the building to play their games. Montana Tech hasn't played baseball in decades.

The baseball field and the football field use the same grass in the outfield, but Montana Tech has had their eye on upgrading to synthetic field turf for years. This past August, Montana Tech Athletic Director Joe McClafferty sat down with the heads of the Legion program and told them that in either 2012 or 2013, they would install the turf, and Legion would have to leave.

At the end of March, Tech didn't have all of the funds that it needed to complete the project, but they were more than halfway there. They informed the Miners that construction will start in 2013, so 2012 would be the last year Legion could play at Alumni Colosseum.

The reason Legion baseball has to go is because Tech isn't installing field turf on anything but the football field. In effect, left field and center field will be field turf, and right field and the infield would be grass. This isn't acceptable for baseball.

The Miners will play at Copper Mountain Park for the next few years. They hope to call the Babe Ruth fields behind the Civic Center home before too long, but they sit on a Superfund site, and until it's cleaned up they can't construct anything there.

For now, the Miners and Montana Tech are working to get any reusable pieces of the baseball stadium out of Alumni. The dirt, signs, external clubhouse, external concession stand, and batting cages will all go with the Miners.

The grandstands will stay where they are for now. Montana Tech is looking to add new dormitories in the next few years, and the grandstands sit on the preferred spot for a new dorm building. The structure is so old that it could just be knocked down.

In addition to a more reliable and weather-proof football field, installing field turf gives Butte a legitimate venue for outdoor concerts, as well as a place for Montana Tech's intramural teams to play without having to worry about the quality of the field for its varsity sports.

The Miners' transition to Copper Mountain will be tough. There are no stadium lights at that facility, which means that home night games could be scarce. The team is raising money to build a new facility once the Superfund issue is resolved behind the Civic Center, but it's unclear when that will happen.