Bud Metheny Ballpark
stadium in Norfolk, Virginia
The Ellmer Family Baseball Complex at Bud Metheny Ballpark is a baseball venue on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia that is currently closed for construction. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Old Dominion Monarchs baseball team, which compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Sun Belt Conference.
The ballpark is named after former Old Dominion head basketball coach, baseball manager, and athletic director Bud Metheny, who worked for the university from 1948 to 1980 after an eleven-year stint in the New York Yankees organization including a World Series championship in 1943. He compiled a record of 423 wins, 363 losses and 6 ties as manager of the Monarchs. Metheny's jersey number, 3, has been retired by the university and is displayed on the right field wall of the stadium.
History
The original Bud Metheny Baseball Complex opened for the 1983 baseball season, with the first game being a 7–2 Old Dominion win over Millersville University. The complex was not dedicated until April 25, 1984 with a game against the Virginia Tech Hokies. That night's crowd of 2,125 is the highest attendance in stadium history. The ballpark hosted the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament in 1983, 1985, and 1987, and the Colonial Athletic Association baseball tournament in 1994. Old Dominion defended home field and won the 1985 Sun Belt and 1994 Colonial championships.
The public source identifies “Bud Metheny Ballpark” as stadium in Norfolk, Virginia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Metheny, Ballpark and stadium.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4983898. Authority coordinates are 36.884, -76.309. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1980, 1943 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bud Metheny Ballpark” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.