The Sun Belt Conference softball tournament begins Wednesday at UL’s Lamson Park, marking the first time that the event will be held in Lafayette since 2004.

UL interim director of athletics Scott Farmer, chairman of the NCAA Division I softball committee, said ongoing stadium renovations would not affect the upcoming conference tournament or hurt the possibility of the Ragin’ Cajuns being a regional host.

"It’s 90-plus percent done," Farmer said last Wednesday. "You go out there and you’ll see a huge push of people going and going and doing everything they can to be done for the tournament. I’m realistic and don’t anticipate it being 100 percent done signed, sealed and delivered, but I do anticipate the majority of it — the key parts of it — being fully functional."

Lamson Park, home to the Ragin’ Cajuns since 1985, has undergone a $2.1 million upgrade starting in the winter of 2009. Among those improvements: a mostly covered grandstand between the dugouts, three private luxury boxes, a 50-seat stadium club, a new press box, increased seating beyond the outfield fence, a larger locker room and covered batting cages.

University officials originally projected a completion date prior to the start of the 2011 season. In February, Farmer told The Daily Advertiser that renovations were 75 percent done after inclement weather had pushed back a portion of the work.

"There’s still a lot to be done," Farmer said. "There’s a canopy roof that goes on above the seating area (behind home plate). As you know, none of the upstairs or downstairs is 100 percent done. The media people haven’t been in the press box yet. The stadium club people haven’t been in the club level yet. There’s some electrical work and interior wiring that has to be done. They’re painting things. If you walked over there right now you’d see a lot of things going on."

According to Farmer, he’s "not aware" of "anything huge that’s not going to be done" in time for the conference tournament. He summed up anything that likely won’t be done by Wednesday as "minor inconveniences."

"We’ll be fine as long as we can get the press up there (in the press box) and have the three broadcast booths, PA system, scoreboard, concessions, bathrooms and seating all ready," Farmer said. "The field and dugouts are all fine. We have a beautiful indoor facility next door with batting cages to serve as the warm-up area. I think it’s going to be a phenomenal venue to host a conference championship."

Farmer added that the school submitted a bid to be a regional host before the NCAA’s April 22 deadline. The 24th-ranked Cajuns, who clinched the outright conference regular-season championship Saturday with two wins over UL Monroe, haven’t been a regional host since 2002.

The Cajuns can earn the Sun Belt’s automatic postseason bid by winning the league tournament, something they’ve done 10 of the past 11 years.

NCAA.org lists 20 facility requirements for a school to be a regional host. That includes having a three-sided, covered press box with internet access, a minimum of six phone lines available for use on press row and on-site concessions, restrooms and an athletics training facility as well as a warm-up area for non-playing teams.

"We submitted all of the appropriate paperwork to host a regional and part of that paperwork is a facility," Farmer said. "We have everything operational right now that you need to host a regional. You’ve got to have bathrooms, a press box and batting cages. Those are some of the things. We even sent in the light survey to make sure our lights met the NCAA/ESPN standards for hosting, and they do.

"We got confirmation back on that, and there’s nothing to hold us back from hosting (a regional) from a facility standpoint."

As for reasons for the delayed completion of Lamson Park’s improvements, Farmer continues to search for answers.

"I don’t know that there’s answer for that," Farmer said. "You ever build a house? Was it done on time? I don’t know that I could list every reason why it’s not done, but I know there have been some contractor issues. I come back to this: They are out there working every day, and what they’ve done is very, very nice. It’s good, quality work, and I think we’re going to have a great, great facility."

Despite the ongoing stadium work, the Cajuns posted a 26-1 record this season at home.

"We have a phenomenal stadium," Cajuns co-head coach Stefni Lotief said. "Construction has been slow, but it is what it is. I think it’s going to make for a great venue for the Sun Belt Conference tournament. It’s definitely going to be the nicest stadium in the whole conference."