PK Park


PK Park is a baseball stadium in the northwest United States, located in Eugene, Oregon. It is the home field of the University of Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 Conference, and, during the summer, the home of the minor league Eugene Emeralds of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. The Oregon Ducks' program was revived in 2009 after nearly three decades as a club sport.
PK Park is named after former Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny, whose donations helped to fund the stadium. Designed by sport architect DLR Group, PK Park has 3,000 fixed seats in the main seating bowl and a total capacity of 4,000 spectators. Fan amenities include a video board, landscaped areas for hospitality, a tiered party plaza called "Fowl Territory", a picnic plaza, and eight upper level suites. It is located just east of Autzen Stadium; the baseball park was built on the northeast section of the football stadium's parking lot.
The Ducks' home field through 1981 was Howe Field, just south of McArthur Court. The on-campus venue had since been converted to a facility for the women's softball team.
The elevation of the FieldTurf playing field at PK Park is approximately above sea level. It has an unorthodox alignment, oriented southeast by east ; the recommended alignment of a baseball diamond is east-northeast. The former home venues of Howe Field and Civic Stadium were similar, both aligned southeast.

First seasons

Ground was broken for the facility on August 15, 2008, and the first phase involved construction of the FieldTurf playing field and temporary seating for the 2009 season. In their first game at PK Park on February 27, 2009, the Ducks beat Fresno State, the defending national champions, 1-0 on a walk-off single by senior Andrew Schmidt, witnessed by a sellout crowd of 2,777. The second phase of the project was the permanent concrete grandstand, built between the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The first game in the completed stadium was on March 2, 2010, a 6-2 win over the Washington Huskies, with 2,609 in attendance.

NCAA tournament

In 2012, the park hosted an NCAA Regional and Super Regional. Oregon won the Regional, but was defeated by Kent State in three games in the Super Regional.
In 2013, PK Park again hosted an NCAA Regional, as the Ducks entered the 64-team tournament as a #8 national seed. Oregon lost its second and fifth games, both to the Rice Owls, and were eliminated.

Attendance

In 2013, the Ducks ranked 34th among Division I baseball programs in attendance, averaging 1,971 per home game.
The park set an Oregon Ducks athletics single-game attendance record of 4,825 on June 11, 2012, in game three of the Super Regional against Kent State; the Golden Flashes defeated the Ducks 3-2. To increase the stadium's capacity for postseason play, two temporary stands were erected beyond the left-center field wall.
The overall attendance record was set in 2017 when 5,097 fans attended a July 4 contest between the Eugene Emeralds and Boise Hawks. The game went on for 20 innings - the longest ever for any professional baseball game to be played on the July 4th Independence Day holiday.
RankAttendanceOpponentDateNotes
14,825Kent StateJune 11, 2012 NCAA Super Regional
24,177Kent StateJune 9, 2012 NCAA Super Regional
33,892California*April 28, 2012 post-Spring football game
33,892Stanford*April 27, 2013 post-Spring football game
33,892Oregon StateMay 18, 2013 Civil War rivalry
63,843Kent StateJune 10, 2012 NCAA Super Regional
73,820Oregon StateMay 17, 2013 Civil War rivalry
83,791Washington State*May 1, 2010 post-Spring football game
93,771Austin PeayJune 1, 2012 NCAA Regional
103,762Oregon StateMay 19, 2013 Civil War rivalry

In the program's first period as a varsity sport, the Ducks played at Howe Field, which was converted to the women's softball venue in 1987.