SCHENECTADY — The baseball field that Schenectady never quite finished will now be turned into a tournament-caliber facility, thanks to a donation from Union College.

The college offered Monday to completely rebuild C-diamond at Central Park at a cost of $150,000. The Schenectady City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee gave immediate approval, authorizing the college to begin work as early as today in hopes of finishing before the snow falls.

The college plans to build a new infield, complete with Kentucky bluegrass sod, and install irrigation throughout the field. The city would be responsible for maintaining the field, but the college would maintain the irrigation system.

Two bullpens will be built as well, each with a new pitcher’s mound and home plate. The college will also erect new fences around the field, put roofs on the existing dugouts, and reseed the outfield. Clark Companies has been hired to do much of the work, which is expected to take six to seven weeks.

City officials were enthusiastic.

“This is a win, win, win,” Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said. “Ideally we’ll end up with three tournament-caliber fields.”

Councilman Thomas Della Sala added, “The attraction this would be, with fields in walking distance — I’m convinced we’ll have tournaments three to four times a year once word gets out.”

Union College has traditionally used Central Park’s A-diamond, which is in the best condition. But it gets little sun so snow melts slowly, delaying the college team’s practices nearly every spring. By contrast, C-diamond gets plenty of sun — but isn’t usable for college-level play.

“C-diamond was never completed,” Olsen said. “The city never completed the work. They ran out of funding. It was never really available for that caliber of play.”

If the work goes as planned, Union College will move from A-diamond to C-diamond next spring, leaving A-diamond available for other teams. Mayor Brian U. Stratton has pushed the city Parks Department to allow youth league teams to play on the city’s best fields as often as possible, and Olsen said the field will be available regularly once Union College moves to C-diamond.

“We’ve really made a concerted effort to get our kids on our fields. In the past they very rarely got to play on A-diamond. It’s like Yankee Stadium to them,” Olsen said. “This will give us even more opportunities to do this in the future.”

And they’ll be able to use the rebuilt C-diamond often as well.

“The majority of the season, Union’s not there,” Olsen said. “We would get full use of those fields when Union isn’t using them.”

The college season runs from March to early May, with another month in early fall.

Olsen said the move will also allow him to contemplate changing the drainage of A-diamond so it can be used earlier in the year. Until now, he said, he couldn’t schedule lengthy repairs because Union had nowhere else to play.

He still doesn’t have the money for such work, but now he can at least propose the project during budget negotiations.

“It gives us an opportunity to make some improvements. It’s going to require regrading,” he said. “B-diamond needs slight improvements as well.”

With those projects done, the city could market itself as the perfect place for baseball tournaments, with three fields within walking distance. Olsen is hoping that day comes soon.

Della Sala agreed, saying it would be a dream come true for many road-weary parents.

“I would drive my son to tournaments and we would drive seven, eight miles between games because the fields aren’t close together,” he said. “And you’re not familiar with the area, you’re trying to read a map, find a baseball field somewhere out there.”

Union College spokesman Phil Wajda said officials proposed the project partly because it has made its athletic fields a priority in recent years.

“We’ve done upgrades to our basketball arena, our football arena. Over at College Park Hall, our soccer fields. Now we have a chance to give our baseball team a first-class facility,” he said.

He added that the work is the fulfillment of a pledge repeatedly made by college officials.

“We said anytime we have an opportunity to enter into a partnership with the city that was mutually beneficial, we would do it,” he said.