Located across from Lane Stadium, the Hokies’ football home, and adjacent to Tech Softball Park, Thompson Field was completed in the fall of 2003 and dedicated in 2008 in the name of Sandra D. Thompson, a longtime supporter of women’s athletics at Virginia Tech.
The field is a bluegrass playing surface and measures approximately 75 by 120 yards. It is equipped with an underground irrigation system and a drainage system that allows for it to be ready to play quickly following rainstorms. The complex also features a wireless scoreboard, and a permanent Hubbell lighting system allows for night games.
The athletics department has made improvements gradually since the venue opened in 2003. In 2005, workers completed a new restroom facility for the field, and during the summer of 2008, a new game operations center was erected atop the stadium above the fans. The approximately 900-square foot facility includes two broadcast booths for both the home team and visiting team radio broadcasts. The center also has two covered areas devoted to broadcasting and/or videographers’ cameras, and there is a large working area for media members covering the Hokies.
The climate-controlled facility also contains a state-of-the-art sound system and Ethernet capability. The Internet-ready facility allows Tech’s official athletics website, hokiesports.com, to originate live audio broadcasts and live stats of the Hokies’ matches from the press box. Above the grandstand is a wired camera deck.
Between each team’s bench area is the Sandy D. Thompson Press Box. Formerly the press operations center for the field, the facility is now used as a halftime room for game officials and as an auxiliary area for press and game operations.
Thompson Field, which has been expanded since it was opened, now features approximately 2,028 bench-back seats, where each fan has an unobstructed view of the playing surface. Spacious area around the field allows for nearly 1,500 more fans to watch games.