LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Demolition of the Tigue Moore Field is underway to make room for a brand new baseball stadium at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

UL Director of Athletics Scott Farmer said he, as well as other officials, wanted the stadium to have nicer amenities and be of higher quality.

Contractors and builders originally projected the new stadium to cost $10 million, but now it’s estimated to cost $16 million.

“When we first started the project, we charged the construction team and architects 10 million dollars, [that] was the budget they put together. They came back to us early on and said this is what you can get for 10 million dollars and it wasn’t exactly what we wanted,” Farmer said.

According to Farmer, the extra $6 million will go towards new decks behind the bleachers on first and third base, a new club level and building a concrete-system stadium, as opposed to an aluminum-system stadium.

So far, the UL Ragin’ Cajuns have raised about $9 million for the new stadium.

To get to the $16 million mark, Farmer said they have a bridge loan set up to be able to begin construction.

“We’re going to privately raise the money. The more we raise, the less we’ll have to use out of that bridge loan,” Farmer said.

For UL student Christopher Gastinell, he said a new baseball stadium will bring more opportunities for the university.

“That will bring publicity for the athletics and in turn bring in more money for the university…so by all means build anything you want on campus, as long as it brings the school more money,” Gastinell said.

Farmer said he is waiting to project any sort of completion date for the new stadium, until after demolition and the hurricane season is over.