Final touches added to ballpark, gates open Monday

Final touches were being added to the Southwest University Park less than 24 hours before baseball fans pack the stands for the first time.

But now that cheers and record-number crowds are coming to downtown El Paso, there’s other concerns.

“If they are a little ahead of the game, and you know, kinda keep security guards where they need to be directing traffic, directing people, I think it’ll be fine,” nearby resident Ken Latterman said.

People who live near the Minor League Baseball stadium have been dealing with construction crew traffic and noise for more than a year. Now that the season is officially about to kick off, they’re worried about traffic and fan behavior.

“I hope there’s no people trying to come over to this neighborhood to drink or cause problems,” Isabel Torres said.

On Sunday, city officials held a press conference to say construction went as planned, and it would take a catastrophe such as a power outage to stop the game from happening Monday evening.

“If you’re going to insist on taking your vehicle what you should do is avoid major corridors, such as I-10. If you’re going to take I-10 into downtown get off much earlier and take side roads,” Sun Metro spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta said.

Regardless of who you talk to though, there appears to be high hopes for what’s to come.

ABC-7 was provided with a list of ballpark construction facts from city officials. There were 2.6 million pounds of steel used to build the ballpark. Six hundred thousand colored bricks adorn the facade. The scoreboard is made up of 1.5 million light emitting diodes, also known as LEDs. It took just 379 days from when the old city hall was imploded to opening day.