Marion Stadium (formerly known as Rent One Park and Mtn. Dew Stadium) is a

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 ...

Marion, Illinois The city of Marion is the county seat of Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population in Marion, IL was 16,855 according to the 2020 census. It is part of a dispersed urban area that developed out of early 20th-century coal fields ...

, that was completed in 2007. It is primarily used for

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 was previously the home of the Southern Illinois Miners of the

Frontier League The Frontier League (FL; French: ''Ligue Frontière'', LF) is a professional baseball league in North America composed of 18 teams – 15 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The FL is one of the eight independent baseball leagues in North Ame ...

from 2007 to 2021 before being purchased by the Thrillville Thrillbillies of the Prospect League in 2023. The stadium has a contemporary, non-traditional look, devoid of the common red brick and green-painted steel common among ballparks around the United States. One of the most unusual features of the stadium is the roof, which slopes down toward the field. As a result, foul balls hit by players can sometimes roll back down for spectators to catch. The stadium is located roughly 120 miles southeast of St. Louis on

Interstate 57 Interstate 57 (I-57) is a north–south Interstate Highway that exists in two segments. It runs through Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois. I-57 parallels the old Illinois Central Railroad for much of its route north of Interstate 55, I-55. T ...

. There are over 3,400 standard armchair ballpark seats including wider chair seating behind home plate. Down the left field line and in the outfield is lawn seating that can accommodate over 2,000 fans. The upper level features 14 luxury suites and an enclosed banquet area for approximately 200 persons. Marion Stadium also contains an open-air entry plaza, home and visitor clubhouses, dedicated maintenance building, administrative offices, and team store. The scoreboard and video board are accompanied by 12 panels for advertisement on the right-field wall, beyond and above the bullpens. The company that originally held the ballpark's naming rights, Rent One, is a

rent-to-own Rent-to-own, also known as rental purchase or rent-to-buy, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, engagement rings, and real property, ...

retail store chain. Following the folding of the Southern Illinois Miners baseball team in 2021, the venue was then purchased by Illinois Center Project, LLC. with the goal of converting the stadium into a multi-use venue. In 2023, it was announced that Pepsi MidAmerica had purchased the naming rights for the ballpark. The newly renamed Mtn. Dew Park was set to be the crown jewel of Thrillville, a massive youth sports development to be built in the vicinity of the stadium. By the Thrillbillies home opener, the stadium's name was changed to Marion Stadium with no explanation or announcement from the team. Since 2022, the stadium has been used for concerts, equestrian events, community gatherings, and more, along with local little league and high school baseball tournaments. The Colt World Series is currently hosted at the stadium each summer after relocating from Lafayette, Indiana. In 2023, both the

Great Lakes Valley Conference The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its fifteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois, ...

and the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...

began holding their conference tournaments at the ballpark.

First game

The first game in the stadium was played on May 29, 2007. Over 6,200 fans saw the Southern Illinois Miners defeat the Evansville Otters 9–6.

Attendance records

On August 10, 2007, the Southern Illinois Miners broke the Frontier League single game record attendance with 6,718 fans. In that game at Rent One Park, the Miners defeated the

River City Rascals The River City Rascals were a professional baseball team based in O'Fallon, Missouri, in the United States. The Rascals were a member of the West Division of the Frontier League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. From the 1999 ...

8–0. In their first season in Marion, the Miners also broke the single season attendance record by hosting 259,392 fans, averaging over 5,000 fans per game.

Other events

Because the stadium has Sportexe Turf instead of regular grass and dirt, events other than baseball can be held there throughout the year, including live concerts. On June 6, 2018, the

announced that Rent One Park would host the conference's postseason baseball tournament in 2019 and 2020, the first time that a postseason

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

baseball tournament will be held in the Southern Illinois region since 1986.

Notes

External links

Rent One Homepage
* http://southernilminers.blogspot.com/ Miners Blog {{Music venues of Illinois Minor league baseball venues Marion, Illinois Baseball venues in Illinois Buildings and structures in Williamson County, Illinois Tourist attractions in Williamson County, Illinois Sports venues completed in 2007