Baseball complex price: nearly $3M

Published 10:16 am Friday, April 15, 2016

On Monday, after nine months and $2.922 million in construction costs, regular league games will commence at the Lincoln Civic Center Baseball Complex.

Games will take place every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Ages 7-8 will play on Field 1, ages 9-10 will play on Fields 2 and 3, and ages 11-12 will play on Field 4.

The Civic Center will announce the status for games on their Facebook page: facebook.com/lincolncountybaseballcomplex. Civic Center Director Quinn Jordan said at 1 p.m., the Facebook page will announce the likelihood of the game going forward, and a final decision will be posted at 4 p.m. If the game is rained out, Jordan said the game will be played on a Saturday in the future but not necessarily the Saturday immediately following.

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Jordan said there will be no gate fee for standard league play, though there will be for end-of-the-year tournaments.

Instead, the operating budget of $123,000 will be funded by a combination of money generated by sponsors, concessions, registration fees and county funds.

County administrator David Fields said the county has budgeted $80,000 in operating costs for the fields. However, Fields stressed that the real operating cost is difficult to guess this early.

“We won’t have really good numbers until the end of this year,” Fields said. “It’s all speculation right now.

“We’ll see at the end of our fiscal year. We should have a season in, so we’ll know a little better, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to make and this is what we’re going to spend out there.’”

Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, is doing her part to help raise funds for the facility with Senate Bill 2963. The bill, if passed, would allow sponsors to enter into advertising deals with the county beyond the terms of the current Board of Supervisors, up to including naming rights for the complex’s main building.

Jordan said currently there were no plans to change the name of the building or the fields.

“In order to do that, it would be for a substantial monetary amount that would help offset operations and tax dollars,” Jordan said.

All that said, Jordan said the complex is looking to be a huge success.

“We’ve had tremendous turnout,” Jordan said.