By Bob Romantic
GCU News Bureau
Life at Brazell Stadium is about to get a little bit cooler.
Shade canopies have been put in place at the baseball facility on Grand Canyon University’s campus, making the fan experience a little more bearable as temperatures creep toward triple digits.
“It’s great for the University to provide a more comfortable environment for fans and families,” said GCU's head baseball coach, Andy Stankiewicz., whose team is on the road this week and returns for its next home series April 18 against California Baptist.
The canopies, made of a heavy-duty shade cloth, cover three sections of the bleachers. Two 2,100-square-foot canopies cover seating down the first- and third-base lines. An additional 1,200-square-foot canopy covers the area behind home plate.
“The cloth blocks 96 percent of UV rays,” said Zac Carino, operations manager for Total Shade LLC, which installed the shade structures. “The big thing now, especially with playgrounds, is the (canopies) help prevent cancer from the sun.”
Carino said Total Shade worked on several models that depicted the angle of the sun at various times of the day. In the afternoon, when most games are played, he estimated that 80 percent of the bleachers will be shaded.
The shade fabric is gray in color, which helps provide contrast and enables outfielders to pick out the baseball easier on fly balls.
Total Shade also installed the canopies at the GCU campus swimming pool. In addition, Carino said his company has built shade structures at the Xavier College Prep softball field in Phoenix, the baseball field at Mesa Community College, Goodyear Ballpark (spring training home of the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds) and at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
“We also do them for churches, playgrounds, hotels, city and county parks, military bases ...,” Carino said. “Just from my experience, it is probably 15 degrees cooler under the shade than it is in the sun.”
Contact Bob Romantic at 639.7611 or [email protected].
