Bradner Stadium is a multi-purpose

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Olean, New York Olean ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is ...

. The stadium, which can accommodate both

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, served as home to minor-league baseball teams including the

Olean Oilers The Olean Oilers are a collegiate summer baseball team located in Olean, New York playing in the New York Collegiate Baseball League since 2012. The Olean Oilers were a minor league baseball team which played primarily in the New York–Penn Lea ...

and Olean Yankees. The stadium was built in 1926 and was substantially renovated in 2013. It holds 4,000 people and primarily serves as the home stadium of the NYCBL Olean Oilers collegiate baseball team for over 20 summer games as well as the Olean High School and Archbishop Walsh football teams in the fall. The stadium accommodates several community events as well. The stadium was approved by a public vote on February 27, 1926, and was finished for the 1928 baseball season. The facility was named after patrons John H. & Marcia B. Bradner, who donated to the construction effort. During the stadium's original baseball years, the field became notorious for its poor drainage and its configuration that had batters facing blinding sunlight when a game was played near sunset (the stadium lacked a

batter's eye The batter's eye or batter's eye screen is a solid-colored, usually dark area beyond the center field wall of a baseball stadium, that is the visual backdrop directly in the line of sight of a baseball batter, while facing the pitcher and awai ...

), which forced baseball games to be suspended until the sun set below the horizon. The stadium's baseball configuration was removed in the 1970s in what was then a successful effort to improve the drainage in the stadium, and when the stadium was again reconfigured for baseball decades later, the diamond was reoriented to avoid the "sun breaks". In 2009, the

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

Southern Tier Diesel of the Northeastern Football Alliance relocated from Wayland to begin play at the stadium. The Diesel wwasevicted after the 2015 season, with the mayor of Olean saying that the team had damaged the playing field during a game in the 2015 season that was played in a rainstorm. The Diesel were able to negotiate a compromise before the 2016 season that limits their home appearances to one game per month during baseball season. A revived Olean Oilers, this version a member of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, took up residence at the stadium in 2013.

Notable events

In 1947, Hall-of-Fame player

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...

played at Bradner with the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

References

External links

Photographs of Bradner Stadium - ''Rochester Area Ballparks''
St. Bonaventure Brown Indians football Minor league baseball venues College football venues in New York (state) High school football venues in the United States Sports venues in Cattaraugus County, New York Baseball venues in New York (state) 1926 establishments in New York (state) Sports venues completed in 1926 Olean, New York {{NewYork-baseball-venue-stub