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Multi-field baseball complex may come to town
By KOSAKU NARIOKA
The Economic Alliance Houston Port Region will conduct a feasibility study to develop a baseball complex on the city’s 35-acre property at the northeast corner of East Boulevard and 13th Street.
The Deer Park City Council approved the agreement with the alliance on Tuesday. The study will cost the city $25,000 and be completed in about eight weeks.
Gary M. Jackson, assistant city manager, said in a background memo for the Oct. 14 workshop, the possible designs of the youth sports complex could “run the gamut” ranging from a community park to a mega tournament complex while noting that the more amenities and tournament level features are added, the more costly the complex becomes.
Jackson said a tournament level facility requires higher operating costs than a community park-type facility, whereas a first-class tournament level facility could attract visitors to Deer Park.
Back in April, the city council gave the second highest priority to a strategy -- marketing to attract new business and residents while diversifying the economy -- in the field of economic development.
“A successful baseball facility will attract visitors from outside of Deer Park on a regular basis,” a proposal of the study from the alliance read. “They will spend money on hotels, local restaurants, supplies and gas. These expenditures will not only generate new sales, but will also increase sales taxes, generate new jobs, and increase personal income.”
City Manager Ronald V. Crabtree said at the workshop, “It’s probably going to be beneficial for us to do some market analysis and economic feasibility study for whatever types of complex we want to try to put in place there.”
Chad Burke, project manager of the study, said they will survey all the facilities around the region, come up with a recommendation for the number of fields that the city should have and present a couple of different scenarios for the new complex.
He said they are at first going to collect the data of the existing facilities from appropriate sources as to who are hosting tournaments in the region, how many tournaments there are each year and how many people are visiting to those tournaments and then input the figures to a model to see the economic impact from the existing tournaments in the region. They will then estimate the demand for the new complex and input the projected figures to the same model to calculate the potential economic impact the new complex would generate.
Burke added when baseball organizations decide where to play, they look at elements like competition, facilities and services, and that if the fields are good and marketed to the right organizations, the facility will receive good responses.
Asked by Councilman Bill Patterson if the study will report on how the fields will be managed, Burke said it will.
“The management and the marketing of it (the facility), frankly, is the key point to the entire thing,” the project manager said.
The city council, meantime, has recently recommended the city to hire a consulting firm The Bury Family of Companies for the planning and design of the youth sports complex.
Crabtree said the market study furnished by the alliance would give the design firm “better information on what the facility really need to look like.”
The Deer Park City Council approved the agreement with the alliance on Tuesday. The study will cost the city $25,000 and be completed in about eight weeks.
Gary M. Jackson, assistant city manager, said in a background memo for the Oct. 14 workshop, the possible designs of the youth sports complex could “run the gamut” ranging from a community park to a mega tournament complex while noting that the more amenities and tournament level features are added, the more costly the complex becomes.
Jackson said a tournament level facility requires higher operating costs than a community park-type facility, whereas a first-class tournament level facility could attract visitors to Deer Park.
Back in April, the city council gave the second highest priority to a strategy -- marketing to attract new business and residents while diversifying the economy -- in the field of economic development.
“A successful baseball facility will attract visitors from outside of Deer Park on a regular basis,” a proposal of the study from the alliance read. “They will spend money on hotels, local restaurants, supplies and gas. These expenditures will not only generate new sales, but will also increase sales taxes, generate new jobs, and increase personal income.”
City Manager Ronald V. Crabtree said at the workshop, “It’s probably going to be beneficial for us to do some market analysis and economic feasibility study for whatever types of complex we want to try to put in place there.”
Chad Burke, project manager of the study, said they will survey all the facilities around the region, come up with a recommendation for the number of fields that the city should have and present a couple of different scenarios for the new complex.
He said they are at first going to collect the data of the existing facilities from appropriate sources as to who are hosting tournaments in the region, how many tournaments there are each year and how many people are visiting to those tournaments and then input the figures to a model to see the economic impact from the existing tournaments in the region. They will then estimate the demand for the new complex and input the projected figures to the same model to calculate the potential economic impact the new complex would generate.
Burke added when baseball organizations decide where to play, they look at elements like competition, facilities and services, and that if the fields are good and marketed to the right organizations, the facility will receive good responses.
Asked by Councilman Bill Patterson if the study will report on how the fields will be managed, Burke said it will.
“The management and the marketing of it (the facility), frankly, is the key point to the entire thing,” the project manager said.
The city council, meantime, has recently recommended the city to hire a consulting firm The Bury Family of Companies for the planning and design of the youth sports complex.
Crabtree said the market study furnished by the alliance would give the design firm “better information on what the facility really need to look like.”
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