The home of the Grand Prairie AirHogs is getting ready for a major makeover.
QuikTrip Park will have all of its grass replaced with synthetic turf as part of a renovation intended to reduce weather-related cancellations.
"Once a rainstorm stops, we'll be able to have a game within five to 10 minutes of the end of the rainstorm," said Scott Berry, president of the Grand Prairie AirHogs.
For about the past year, the city and the AirHogs worked together to come up with a weather-proof plan for the 144,000 square foot stadium located just off of Interstate 30 and Belt Line Road. The venue's look and feel will be completely different by early next year.
Berry said the baseball stadium has been used for a lot of non-baseball activities in recent years.
"It's a multi-use facility," he said. "We had six to eight concerts. We had a boxing match this past year. And when I say multi-use, I include high school baseball, the high school tournaments."
Baseball still is QuikTrip Park's bread and butter, with other events supplementing its income, Berry said. But uncertainty often comes with the fickle Texas weather.
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"When you plan an event six months in advance, you send out notices, do all of the advertising, and if it doesn't work, you lose that potential revenue," said Tim Shinogle, the city's park planning and development manager.
Berry said he also hopes the change will have the AirHogs and the city seeing green.
"We will save tens of thousands of dollars in water and upkeep of the field, and we will make probably tens, if not possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars both for us and the economic impact to the area," he said.
The renovation is expected to begin in the first week of November and be complete by Feb. 1.
