Oklahoma softball is no small-time operation. With a budget of nearly $5 million for the 2022 fiscal year—the sport’s biggest in the NCAA, according to numbers from Sportico’s college finance database—the Sooners have invested heavily in the program, and it has paid off.
This week, Oklahoma kicked off its quest for a third consecutive national championship with an opening-round win over Stanford at the Women’s College World Series, the top-seeded squad’s seventh straight appearance on the sport’s biggest stage. Thursday’s victory was sealed at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, just 20 miles north of the school’s Norman-based campus.
OKC also happens to be home to another key ingredient in the Sooners’ success: Love’s Travel Stops.
Love’s, a family-owned chain of more than 600 truck stops and convenience stores across 42 states, is Oklahoma softball’s biggest backer. With deep roots in the Sooner State, Love’s opened its first filling station in western Oklahoma back in 1964. The company, headquartered in OKC, will soon have more visibility in Norman when its name and logo are plastered across Oklahoma’s new facility—Love’s Field—after a $12 million gift toward the school’s $47.9 million softball stadium project.
The donation marked the largest philanthropic gift to a women’s sport program in Sooner athletics’ history.
“Community giving is a huge part of Love’s culture, and we see our donation to OU softball as a perfect fit between a program and a company that represent the people of Oklahoma on a national level,” Jenny Love Meyer, Love’s chief culture officer, said over email. “We’re very excited about the Sooners’ historic run, and we can’t wait to see more records broken at Love’s Field.”
Love’s is a big-time corporate backer of what’s become a big-time college athletics program. The six-time national champion Sooners have had one of the most dominant runs in college softball history—and people beyond the Great Plains have taken notice.
Oklahoma’s title-clinching win over Texas last year was the most-watched college softball or baseball game of 2022. The game attracted an average of 1.74 million viewers and peaked at 2.1 million, according to ESPN. Though down slightly from the record-setting 1.85 million average viewers the final clash between Oklahoma and Florida State drew in 2021, it still attracted a bigger television audience than both the most-watched college baseball game of last year (Game 1 of the men’s College World Series championship series) and the final game of the men’s CWS.
Thursday’s victory extended OU’s current winning streak to 49 games, the longest in NCAA softball history. The school’s seven All-Americans selections (including five first-team players) this year are the most of any program in the country, solidifying its powerhouse status.
As the Sooners’ success has grown, so too has its fanbase. Oklahoma softball’s average attendance this season hit 2,083 fans—up from an average of 1,598 in 2022 and just 575 in 2021—good for fourth in the nation behind Arkansas, Missouri and Alabama, according to the NCAA, as attendance among the top college softball programs has skyrocketed.
That growth has been far too much for Marita Hynes Field—the team’s home since 1998—which has a permanent seating capacity of just 1,378. Including temporary seating, the current stadium can only accommodate around 1,900 seated fans.
Like other college athletics dynasties, the program’s dominance now commands a bigger crowd and demands better facilities. Enter: Love’s Field, which will seat 3,000 at the start (though design plans include an expectation of, and accommodations for, future expansion) and a 10,500-square-foot indoor training center. The team will move to the new venue in 2024.
Love’s pledge accounts for the biggest single donation out of the more than $30 million raised for the project to date, money that has come from more than 1,000 donors. The school said Love’s original pledge was $9 million with an agreement to match an additional $3 million in donations—a challenge the Oklahoma faithful quickly met, unlocking the match and then some.
When it comes to Sooner softball, love is all around. And so is money.