The Oklahoma State Cowboy baseball team was  scheduled to move from Allie P. Reynolds Stadium to the new O’Brate Stadium on March 20 and host TCU to open the Big 12 season.

The Chinese coronavirus pandemic changed all that.

Beginning with the March 13 game in Stillwater against Fresno State, the Oklahoma State baseball season was canceled. There was no Bedlam game with Oklahoma in Tulsa on March 21 and the Cowboys (13-5) didn’t host the ORU baseball team in the new stadium on April 14 and they won’t travel to Tulsa on April 28 to play at ORU.

The Big 12 Conference announced that all conference and non-conference competitions are cancelled through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year.

Additionally, all organized team activities whether organized or voluntary, including team and individual practices, meetings, and other organized gatherings, have been suspended indefinitely.

The last time OSU opened a new park was in 1981. OSU won 20 conference championship at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium over the span of almost 40 years. The Cowboys won a national title with that site was called University Park.

Under Coach Josh Holliday,  Oklahoma State has never missed an NCAA Regional, added three conference championships, made three appearances in the NCAA Super Regionals and returned to the College World Series for the first time since 1999.

O’Brate Stadium is already a boost to the program.

 “It has definitely opened the eyes of elite players and their families,” Holliday said. “It has changed the dynamic. It’s one thing to have drawings and plans and good intentions. It’s a whole new deal to be right down the home stretch of completing a world class facility.

“We are getting access to some players that maybe we wouldn’t have had a chance to get a visit from in the past. And once you get on this beautiful campus and meet the wonderful people and start to realize all the awesome DNA that exists here, it makes for a great college experience.”

The new stadium has six new batting cages, state of the art pitching technology and bullpen sessions in a controlled climate. A turf practice field will help OSU prepare to play in various conditions on the road.

“The synthetic turf has an extended infield and so we will have a tremendous amount of space and will be able to do a number of different things we’ve never been able to do before,” Holliday said. “It gives us premium space for drills, baserunning and defensive repetitions, pitcher fielding. And it will reduce the wear and tear on our natural grass inside O’Brate Stadium.”

The stadium has a state-of-the-art classroom setting, weight room, video capabilities, locker room and coaches offices.

 “I think the other feature of the building I’m so excited about is the alumni locker room where past players, whether they are currently playing professional baseball or just back here going to school and finishing their degrees, also have a place where they can locker and call home,” Holliday said. “We continue to keep the doors wide open for those guys beyond their playing years. We continue to encourage and to promote finishing school and getting degrees and give those guys a place to call home in the winter while they are training and getting ready for spring training.”

For Cowboys fans, there are 13 suites and a club on the media level. Food booths are located around the park and there are grills for spectators who won’t to make their own food.

“I wanted to build a place that produces more stories and more lives like Josh and Matt Holliday,” said OSU athletic director Mike Holder. “It’s not about the sport. It’s about them basically growing up at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. It was where they spent their childhood. It’s amazing listening to them talk about their memories of those days and the influence it had on their lives.”

The stadium has a big parking lot behind center field – parking was at the old stadium. Fans can enter O’Brate Stadium from center field and the usual entry behind home plate remains an option as well.

 “Some of the folks who have had a chance to see it say they feel like they are in a small major league park,” Holliday said. “So the awe factor has been delivered, but the seating is cozy like a Fenway or Wrigley. We didn’t lose the intimacy of a park and still built one heck of a stadium.”