Portions of the Bowie Baysox’s Prince George’s Stadium will be undergoing repairs this month after suffering largely cosmetic damage in the wake of a powerful wave of thunderstorms that rocked Prince George’s County.
The stadium, at 4101 Crain Highway, suffered an estimated $20,000 worth of damage from the thunderstorms that blasted the Mid-Atlantic region on June 29.
While no one was injured, the storm shredded three tents located on the stadium’s concourse as well as bent and contorted a portion of the outfield fence.
“It’s the most damage that we’ve had,” said Brian Shallcross, the team’s general manager since 2004.
The storm tore the covering off two 30-by-30-foot tents on the concourse leaving only metal poles behind. The third tent, a 20-by-20-foot structure was damaged so badly it will have to be completely replaced, Shallcross said.
In the stadium outfield, the twisted center outfield fence bent in towards the field, but was far enough from the playing field to avoid interfering with ballgames, Shallcross said.
Bowie resident Derek Rabold, who said he has been regularly attending games at the stadium since it opened in 1992, said the damage was hard to miss as he watched Sunday’s game where the Baysox hosted the Akron Aeros.
“I noticed it the first game I came to after the storm,” Rabold said.”The first thing I noticed was the fence was a bit caved in.”
Repair work for the stadium, which is owned by the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, is planned for this week, with workers scheduled to come out and begin replacing the center outfield fence on Tuesday. The new canopies for the two surviving tents as well as a replacement for the third destroyed tent won’t arrive until later this month, said Steve Carter, division chief of sports health and wellness for the Department of Parks and Recreation for Prince George’s County which falls under M-NCPPC.
The fencing damage should be fixed before the team’s next home stand on July 19, Shallcross said.
amcombs@gazette.net