Fort Worth, Texas, November 30, 2010
The Southern Bleacher Company, based in Graham, Texas, has been contracted for an expansion project on the Charlie and Marie Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas.
Southern Bleacher and General Contractor Austin Commercial built the $7 million, 3,500-seat Lupton Stadium in 2001, bringing state-of-the-art seating, a clubhouse, press box and locker rooms to TCU baseball and bringing record crowds to the stadium's inaugural game in February 2003 when 3,105 fans - more than half of the previous season's total home game attendance - showed up to cheer on the Horned Frogs.
Fan attendance continued to surge in the years since, matching record crowds to record team performance as TCU earned year-after-year wins in the Mountain West Conference and last year earned a spot in the Men's College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha - the holy grail of men's college baseball and a first in Horned Frog history.
That ever growing fan base has now led TCU to contract Southern Bleacher to add roughly another 800 seats to Lupton Stadium's upper decks along the first- and third-base lines, completing the project in time for the start of the 2011 season on Feb. 18, when Kansas visits Lupton Stadium for a three-game series.
"It's an honor for us to be a continuing part of this story and be able to help support the amazing momentum behind this team," said Garrett Pettus, vice president of Southern Bleacher. "It was great to see the Horned Frogs go to Omaha this year, and we're going make it so even more fans can turn out to cheer them on to another World Series!"
Stadium chairs for the expansion will be provided by Ducharme Seating, a leader in spectator seating products since 1959. More than 220 TCU supporters contributed to Lupton's original construction. In 2008, commenting on the Horned Frog's steadily growing success, Head Baseball Coach Jim Schlossnagle said, "It would be impossible to have accomplished these feats without this ballpark."
About Southern Bleacher Company
Southern Bleacher Company (www.southernbleacher.com) is the nation's largest and most experienced manufacturer of spectator seating, providing new construction and renovations for major league and university stadiums, NASCAR facilities, rodeo arenas and high school sports fields across the United States. Family-owned since its first day of business in 1946, the company has worked with planning committees, architects and contractors over three generations to set the standard of excellence in the design and manufacturing of entertainment venues, drawing on vast experience in building-code and safety requirements, accessibility issues and optimal lines of sight. Southern Bleacher's comprehensive services include budget analysis, estimates, proposal drawings and specifications, provided at no cost to create facilities that are aesthetically pleasing, spectator-friendly and cost effective.
For more information, visit: www.southernbleacher.com.
Media Contact:
Garrett Pettus
Marketing
Southern Bleacher
+1-800-433-0912