I have been talking to a contact in Halfmoon Baseball regarding their new fields @ Hayners in Clifton Park. They originally had planned to have lights installed, but the cost got prohibitive and they finished the new complex without lights. They are having a meeting in the next week or two regarding how to raise the funding to put lights on their Babe Ruth / Connie Mack field. I thought that we might want to offer to assist in their fund raising efforts in exchange for a one night per week time slot on the new field (maybe at a discounted rate). Any thoughts on the subject?
I think we should seriously look into building our own complex.....with the money we spend on fields we could support the debt service on a good sized loan.
I put my name in as a candidate for the board..... even if i don't get selected i would be willing to be part of a group trying to research if it is feasible and if so to begin the process.
We have a wealth of knowledge among our players and should be able to pull it off....from fundaising through maintenance of the completed fields.
John, I agree, should do our own thing. Like you stated, I'm sure we have an abundance of knowledgable guys that can make something happen, in regard to building our own field. I know we ALL come from backgrounds of different businesses, and I'm sure their are engineers, heavy equipment operators, owners of supply companies, amongst us, etc. I can approach a few people that have some clout. Just need to get a sense if this can be a possible undertaking. Let's get ideas from ALL . Also, a good friend of mine in Rotterdam (Rick Guideralli), has land at the old Sportsmans Park Fastpitch facility off Crane Street, directly next to Sportsman's Bowl in Rotterdam. We have talked about it a few times, so he's all ear's!! I can speak to hm if we go this rout.
That is very good news Mike - We should move on this quickly, it is obviously an opportunity that could be be mutually beneficial. Ken Hayner was an assistant coach when I was at UMASS. Can you find out the best contact to go forward on this? By the way, there is still time for write in candidates at the annual meeting tomorrow for election to the board of directors. Can I nominate you??
As to the second point brought up by John and Mike E., I have had a couple of discussions with John Reel on this very issue. It will be one of the first issues the new board addresses, and we hope to begin with a strategic plan towards attaining the goal of building our own complex.
Not only does the league have some of the best baseball players, but also there are so many talented tradesmen that would come to bat and help build our own sports complex, especially one with a pool, hotel rooms, and our own strip joint right next to the McDonald's. This way, we wouldn't have to leave. There are so many fun guys that love baseball that our own place could be a very real possibility.
It could be a Wendy's or Burger King, I'm not married to the golden arches.
Every so often, the topic of building our own complex comes up... At face value, this would appear to be a great idea. Nothwithstanding the cost of acquiing land, sod, fences, dugouts, strorage shed, equipment (tractor) etc. there is the larger issue of maintaining the field. That inlcludes watering, mowing, hosing off the lips as they build up, york raking, weed whacking, fixing the mound and batters box after every game, knowing what to do after rain and lining the field before every game.
I can say from the past that getting people to do these things is easier said than done. When we had work parties at Colonie Babe Ruth it used to be the same 10 - 15 people all the time. Although people would always be willing to help, it was always the same group. If a small group wants to take responsibility for grooming and maintaining the field, they should be aware that they will have the field for the entire year.
When I was a field manager for Latham Babe Ruth, I was at the field at least 5 days a week. This would start in April and go through the end of the season. The only way to get the field ready was three weekends of work parties since there was so much work to do. And even when the season was over, the field still had to be mowed. And when the tractor was in the repair shop, then we needed someone to bring a tractor to the field.
We talked about offering clinics and other worthwhile endeavors but nothing happens. I guess it was best articulated years ago at a board meeting when someone said that he has a family, job and responibilites and that all he wanted was to play ball. He would pay his registration fee, but it was difficult enough to just make the games much less commit to offer time on a regular basis for field work.
I offer this not to discourage discussion to acquire our own field, but to plant the very real possibility that there may not be all that much support from the members to do the work.
Acquiring a field is a huge commitment of time and money. I think we should proceed very cautiously.
Good to hear from you Dennis - We will be setting up an exploratory committee on this matter. I will be picking your brain from time to time. So much has changed in the past few years with the " green" movement. We had a land owner donate property here in Berkshire County for a facility to be built. There were tax benefits for them, the land basically stays undeveloped ( versus condos, etc). It was a win, win situation.
We are a non-profit organization, ther arer tax considerations that may help us. There may be a community over there that would welcome us to help develop a facility that their youth programs could use as well - perhaps to host a babe ruth, legion etc tournament.
There are chapters of the MSBL that have developed their own facilities, including our friends in Maine, where the Downeast Tournament is held each July. We will talk to anyone who can help us.
All I can promise is that it will be a painstakenly slow process, but the first step will be taken. For the continued growth and stability of the league, I believe we must persue this option, especially as the costs of some of our current fields continue to soar.
I think this is a great idea and we as an 18+ league have talked about the issue over and over every off season before we joined the MABL. As Dennis stated there are many things that will come into affect with getting our own complex that we all have to think about and look in the mirror and see if we can devote our time to the field. Also if we purchased our own land we'd be paying taxes, our insurance would go up much more because we'd have to have liability insurance on the land not a secondary insurance plan like we have now. There's a lot more to it than if "we build it, they will come"
We also have to take into consideration that we are an organization with 5 leagues. If we build one field who gets to use the field when? Will we build more than one field? Who will decide what dates and times we get to play? When I played twilight it was nice to have our own field but that was for one division and we still had games on the field every night, some times double headers. So we still would need to rent fields from other leagues, and schools and then paying for the field that we built on top of that. I think when we talk about building our own field, subconsciously its more of a building our own field for our own division. It just seems like there are many different factors that are going into the field discussion.
For these reason, I think it is much more productive to find ways to acquire playing time on better fields like the new St. Rose field and the new Halfmoon Baseball Complex.
in theory having our own field would be nice. but as previously stated the logistics would be a nightmare unless we were able to build a minimum of three fields. that is a big chunk to bite off. if i remember correctly 20 years ago we looked at buying the land at the top of 787 next to where the new st. rose field will be. just the insurance alone at that time was enough to make us think twice, to say nothing of actually putting together the money and manpower needed to get things started. if things lined up where we could grab a field,or land to do something on for free and go from there,great. i actually find myself agreeing with mike . making use of existing fields that are in good shape instead of paying for crap like suny, or that ****pile the 55's were forced to play at up past exit 12/I90 is the way to go. we need to establish relations with some of the local high school coaches,boards of education, etc, and see about using some of thier fields.maybe its already been done i don't know. anybody else have any ideas?
P.S.- I am closing in on guru status, and i can tell the rest of you boys that the air up here is rareified to say the least.
-- Edited by pkw1217 on Wednesday 9th of December 2009 10:00:45 AM
As far as getting discounted labor...My students are required to do lanscaping and other construction related work for getting hands on experience. And it's an opportunity for disadvantaged kids to meet some positive role models who like sports.
So if we can get a GC that one issue taken care of. Also, many municipalities have un-developed lands and if we include the park for kids on the side (sorry Brian) it would serve two purposes as well as showing community service.
A lot of Unions need recruting ideas this is another way to collaborate within our ranks.
I know I'm from downstate, and there are some inner city sites that would be a nice way to bring baseball back into them. This is where we can get MLB involved and local Little Leagues to promote baseball.
Just an I dea as I haven't thought about this much.
One last issue. The original memo about acquiring our own field referenced debt service. We are a not for profit agency (501c3). A bank will not provide us money since the underlying credit of the loan will be the revenue of the league. The bank does not want to own land in case of a default. Additionally, banks do not provide loans for land - only for capital improvement s on the land. Also, with the past banking fiasco of the last few years, banks are becoming very conservative with their lending practices. However, if the members are willing to provide the security (that is you and me individually) then they would consider it. Don't know about you, but I would NOT want to be held persoanlly liable for the loan.
