Prince George’s Stadium is changing. He knows how much it was needed.

It was more than a week until opening night at Prince George’s Stadium. Rain was falling in fits and starts on brown patches of grass on this March morning. Construction workers ducked in and out of the dugouts to finish their repairs.

Darren Blackmon stood along the concourse and gazed at the field. His mind raced to calculate the hours this dreary system could delay his work. He wanted to make sure the grass would soon be in playable condition as he thumbed through weather maps on his phone.

But he wasn’t too worried, Blackmon told The Banner. He knew this early-season unpredictability, including a winter of blanketing snow, was what he signed up for when he returned home.

“It was a lot of mixed emotions. I was super happy to come back,” Blackmon said. “It was nice to know that I finally get the shot to come back and take care of it, back in my hometown. I got a lot of stuff to prove to people that I used to work for and work with.

“I’m super excited. It’s been a lot of stress the past couple of weeks, a lot of ups and downs, but with time, things always work out.”

It’s a new beginning for Blackmon and his employer, the Chesapeake Baysox.

Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie has been the home of the Baysox since opening on June 16, 1994. The team is nearly finished with a $50 million upgrade that was announced in March 2025, said Baysox general manager Brian Shallcross. The renovation includes improvements for spectators and players.

Some overhauls to fan amenities include a new video board, which was installed last season, and balcony seating.

“We built this ballpark in 1994 to attract a Triple-A ball team. Back in 1994, you had to have X number of seats, and it was all prescribed as Triple-A,” said Shallcross, who joined the Baysox in 2003. “Well, the reality of it is the stadium is huge. So some of our recent improvement is to make it a little more intimate to provide more ADA-accessible seating and comfort seating.”

Players with the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate now have a performance center parked in the left field corner of the stadium that is part of an effort to bring the club up to modern facility standards across the minor leagues.

Officials had hoped to wrap this phase of improvements by April’s opening day. But Shallcross said renovations were about 90% complete because of shipping delays and should be done by the end of May.

“We knew we had to make significant changes to keep the Baysox here in the state of Maryland, and that’s why the Maryland Stadium Authority has been so great to work with,” Shallcross said. “They know that it’s not an option [to move]. We needed to improve our facility.”

Shallcross said the stadium will continue to host concerts and festivals during the warmer months. Officials hope the new training center can welcome private parties, sporting events and concerts during the winter.

“With these new renovations, including the training center, we’re going to be an around-the-year facility, and that is really a plus for taxpayers of Prince George’s County.”

Blackmon, 28, welcomes the challenge of maintaining it all. The Baysox come first, but the stadium makeover has already attracted Banana Ball — a production of the popular Savannah Bananas — July 31 and Aug. 1.

Blackmon was born and raised in Bowie and knows how much the Baysox are part of the community. He grew up spending summer nights at this stadium in the seats as a fan. He recalled horsing around the long-standing carousel along the first-base line before taking a job with the grounds crew in high school.

“I loved it when it first came along,” Blackmon said. “When I was a kid, it was fun to come through all the time — hootin’ and hollerin’.

“It’s cool how it all kind of circles back around to where I’m at now and seeing how everyone comes here and does the same exact thing.”

Blackmon came back this year as head groundskeeper after years working on golf courses and other minor and major league facilities, from Aberdeen to Arizona spring training sites.

He’s embracing whatever comes next. And he’s still learning what works best with the Tahoma bermudagrass spread across the field. When we caught him, he was eager for some of the construction to wrap up so he could take the upcoming weekend to consult with other groundskeepers and old mentors to refine the work before it goes on display to players and fans.

He sees it as a fresh start for him and the Baysox.

“It’s exciting to have my own place to call home,” Blackmon said, “and show everyone that every hour that they put into me the last seven to eight years kind of wasn’t wasted, and we got two acres of grass to take care of.”