The stadium was built on a former "brown field" site which had been abandoned for over 20 years. The site was split in half when Central Avenue was built through the area, with the original brick office building for the company remaining intact on the north side of the road and the remaining sections bulldozed. The office was refurbished and is now home to the Jewish Hospital Sports Medicine clinic, which was relocated from downtown. There is additional leasable space in the building which features the University of Louisville Family Medicine Clinic, a 24-hour non-emergency medical clinic that is featured by the university's student health insurance.
The project to build the stadium was simultaneous with the redevelopment of the southern half of the property on the other side of Central Avenue into a 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) shopping center, with a UofL themed Kroger store as its anchor. All of the site is owned by Faulkner Hinton & Associates, including the stadium itself. UofL currently holds a 99-year lease on the stadium site.
At its opening, the stadium had 1,500 chairback seats, with several knolls along the outfield wall which seat an additional 1,000 people. The stadium opened in 2005 and is named after former Louisville baseball player and founder of Long John Silver's and Rally's, Jim Patterson. Patterson donated $5 million of the complex's $10 million cost.
The stadium went through a renovation in 2013 that added another 1,500 chairback seats, which brought the total capacity to 4,000. As part of the renovations, terraces were added behind the seating areas, and the press box and visiting locker rooms were improved.[3]
Before the start of the 2023 season, upgrades were completed to the entryway and concourse of the stadium.[1]
Attendance Records
The single-game attendance record of 6,237 spectators was set on June 10, 2017, when Louisville defeated Kentucky 6–2. [1]
The following is a list of the ten highest single-game attendance figures in the venue's history, as of the 2024 season.
