$18 Million Ball Field Proposal

SECOND ARTICLE IN A SERIES OF TWO

By: Joe J. Wallace, Hadannah Business Solutions
Special to the City County Observer and Assisted by CCO Staff

I like many others who have been following the saga of the Robert’s Stadium Ball Fields Project now known as “The Park”, left last week’s meeting with many questions regarding the financial projections that were presented. In particular, my curiosity lies around the assumptions of just where the figure of 100,000 out of town visitors came from and just how many tournaments are needed to attract a crowd like that and how much do they spend when they are here. The other research that I have been conducting is with respect to the basic cost to build baseball fields and sports complexes. Please enjoy my findings; they do shine some light on the potential of The Park.

Testing the Attendance Numbers:

Two people questioned the assumption that we can draw 100,000 people at the meeting the other night. Mr. Dunn stated that Owensboro draws about 40,000 people per year. He did not state why we can get 100,000 as opposed to 40,000 over there. That is roughly the population ratio so maybe it was scaled from population. Maybe that is the source of the figure.

The Park is proposed to have 8 ball fields. Owensboro has 13 fields in 3 separate sports parks. They held 25 tournaments this year starting in March and running into November. That 40,000/25 really supports the 1,500 people per tournament number that was thrown out on Wednesday. That number of 1,500 people per tournament is consistent with results that I have found online for Myrtle Beach, SC, Bloomington, IN, Cass County, IN, and Beaumont, Texas.

Here is a link to the page that shows what facilities Owensboro has. They claim to have been named one of the 50 top sports towns in the country.

http://www.visitowensboro.com/sports/…

What does it take to Attract 100,000 People?

The answer is 66 tournaments per year. Can that be done with 8 ball fields? It seems like a stretch given that Owensboro has 13 fields and attracts 25 tournaments and Cass County has 6 fields and attracts 18 tournaments. To achieve 66 tournaments would mean two tournaments per weekend for every available date during the playing season.

If the weather was cooperative, and 100% of the available dates were booked The Park will have the capacity to draw 100,000 people but we all know that some weekends rain, some dates just won’t work and that all tournaments are not filled to capacity with teams. I expect having studied Owensboro and the other locations that we can expect 40,000 just like they draw over there when the fields have been marketed and are recognized as a good place to play. That will take a few years.
Scaling with population really does not make sense. Let’s take Robert’s Stadium as an example. It has 12,000 seats. If you place it in Tokyo or Henderson it still only has 12,000 seats. The Park’s capacity is limited by the fact that it has 8 fields and only 35 or so potential weekends per year, not by the fact that Evansville has twice as many people as Owensboro.

How Much Will Our Visitors Spend?

This is one metric where Mr. Dunn and the ECVB have done their homework. The number of $100 per visitor is frequently mentioned in both projections and in results data. It also passes the common sense test when one constructs a weekend baseball budget. The more interesting statistic is in the difference in spending for week long national tournaments and in weekend regional tournaments. The metric most often used in relevant publications is the $ per team per day spent. Regional tournaments report economic impact of spending of about $1,500 per team day vs. $4,000 per team day for national tournaments. Evansville would be well served to seek out tournaments like the 7 day, 100 team tournament in Beaumont, TX that brought in spending of $2,380,000. A single tournament like that would put $57,000 into the coffers of the ECVB and would generate sales taxes of $166,600.

I did notice that many of the week long tournaments seem to be held in locations that are “vacation destinations”. That would account for the difference in spending. If there is a trip to Disneyworld, the beach, or other recreational activities a vacation Mecca offers at the end of the game, per diem spending numbers will be driven higher. Evansville will be challenged to beat out an Orlando or a Myrtle Beach for tournaments that are essentially vacations for the family with a softball tournament penciled into the schedule.

Youth Sports is Hard Work: Is Evansville Ready?

Tournaments like these are expensive and labor intensive to run needing umpires for every game, groundskeepers, concession stand workers, onsite emergency medical personnel, and a host of other support people. The business of youth sports is not easy and it can’t be done with all volunteers. Any business that is projected to bring in multiple millions of revenue on an annual basis will require year round management. The good news is that if this goes forward on any scale or location, the ECVB will be creating some jobs locally to support the out of town guests coming to play ball.

When the groundskeeper from USI spoke at the meeting and discussed how he had a crew of 6 working 18 hour days just to keep the grounds in order during the recent NCAA Regional, there were lots of “deer in the headlights” looks among the people in the room. Running this operation at even half capacity will be a major undertaking and will require additional dedicated staff at the ECVB. That needs to be recognized and included in all future budgets. The Park will not run itself.

Is $18 Million a Price Worth Paying?

As members of the Evansville Parks and Recreation Department and many other have stated “$18 million is a lot of money for 8 ball fields”. I went about the business of trying to learn just what ball fields are going for these days and searched first for a recognized developer of sports facilities. I registered on the website of HK Sports Fields where I was able to find a budget for a basic baseball field. Notice the price is only $250,000 per field. They have links to complexes on the website including a 3-Plex with nice amenities that had a budget of $1.5M, a 24-field multisport facility in Mauston, WI that costs $20 Million, and a 24-Plex in Chula Vista, CA that was $40 Million.

I have not found even one case where ball fields in similar complexes to The Park have exceeded $2 Million per ball field. Parks done in a first class manner are routinely substantially under $1M per ball field in the Midwest. Even the complex in the very expensive area Chula Vista, CA was under $2 Million per field.

The bottom line here is that The Park can be first class, it can attract tournaments and the out of town visitors that come with them, and it can be done for substantially less than $18 Million either at the Robert’s Stadium site or elsewhere. Evansville does not have to max out its credit card to do this. A little bit of innovation like integrating Robert’s Stadium into The Park and a commitment not to squander all of our future opportunities is all that it will take enter the youth sports business and to have some credit limit left over for future worthy projects to better Evansville for all of its citizens. This is a baseball town, as a group we like the game. It is also a town that is frugal for many reasons. Evansville may be frugal by nature, but decades of below average economic performance, the great recession, and the escalating departure of basic industries have created a microcosm of survival. People in survival economies are quite reluctant to invest $18M in recreational facilities for outsiders. Evansville will support youth sports but the financial reality is that Evansville is not Chula Vista, CA and has no appetite for $2 Million baseball fields. If there is ever a time to hold something back for the future that time is now. Fortunately, it seems as though we can do both if we just have the restraint to think this through.

References:

Economic Impact of Youth Sports
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+ECONOMIC+IMPACT+OF+SPORTS+TOURNAMENTS+AND+EVENTS-a057770097Cass County, Indiana 6 fields, 18 tournaments, 500 teams, 21,000 visitors
http://pharostribune.com/localsports/x434660818/Softball-tourneys-offer-boost-to-local-economy?keyword=topstory
Mauston, Wisconsin 24 fields $20M
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_1926fe82-fd84-11de-9880-001cc4c002e0.htmlPinnacle Dream Sports, Berks Co. PA, Multi-Sport and Training Complex
http://www.pinnacledsc.com/

HK Sports Fields EXAMPLE BUDGET 350 ft Center Field Baseball Field

A. Layout Work _$1,000
B. Mass Site Grading, if required $10,000-12,000
a. Strip Topsoil
b. Relocate/Add Fill
c. Re-spread/Machine Grade Topsoil
C. Fence Construction $40,000
a. Bull Pen Areas
b. Gates
D. Irrigation – Entire Field………$25,000-30,000
E. Infield Construction………$40,000-45,000
a. Import/Grade Topsoil for Proper Slope
b. Sod Infield Interior and Foul Area Dugout to Dugout
c. Baseball Mix and Top Dressing Material to all Skinned Areas
d. Construct Mound and Home Plate
e. Base Anchors and Bases
f. Warning Track and Walk-up Lanes
F. Outfield Construction………..$40,000-50,000
a. Import/Grade Topsoil for Proper Slope
b. Sod Outfield Area
c. Construct Outfield Warning Track
G. Dugouts – Concrete Block……… $30,000-40,000
H. Supply and Install Scoreboard………$10,000-12,000
I. Supply and Install Bleachers………$12,000-15,000

TOTAL BUDGET AMOUNT: $155,000.00 to $245,000.00