Eight teams in Minor League Baseball’s Texas League play in municipality-owned stadiums. If the Springfield City Council approves a purchase agreement with the John Q. Hammons Revocable Trust, the Springfield Cardinals will become the ninth out of ten teams to join the club.
When the Springfield Cardinals hosted a public announcement for the pending deal Feb. 1, Springfield City Manager Jason Gage used the four bases on a baseball diamond to illustrate what needs to happen for the Hammons Field deal to cross home plate. First base is approval from the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission, second base is passage by the Springfield City Council, third base is for the global agreement between Springfield and the John Q. Hammons Revocable Trust to clear United States Bankruptcy Court, and home plate is the real estate closing process with a title company.
“When we close, we will have completed the dream of the home run for the community,” Gage said.
The closure of the real estate transaction may or may not happen by the time the Double-A birds take the field for their home opener April 6 against the Wichita Wind Surge, another team that plays in city government-owned stadium.
Across the Texas League, from Amarillo to Corpus Christi, north to Tulsa and Little Rock, farther north to Wichita, cities own the stadiums their hometown clubs play in. As widespread as the practice of cities owning stadiums is, there are plenty of skeptics. Springfield City Councilman Mike Schilling said Wednesday he was one of them.
“Right off the bat, I had a dim view of the city taking on a sports enterprise, a commercial sports enterprise,” Schilling said. “As things went along, I realized, well, if nobody else is going to pick up on this, we’re going to have this white elephant just sitting here and this is not a good look for the city.”
Sports tourism, economic development and tax money
Negotiations between the city of Springfield and the John Q. Hammons Revocable Trust were lengthy. City Councilman Craig Hosmer, whose day job is that of an attorney, recounted a conversation he had while passing through a courthouse hallway. He ran into Hammons Trust attorney Gregg Groves. That discussion helped plant the seed for negotiations toward a sale.
Hosmer said he feels the deal makes sense for both parties.
“There’s not too many people that want to come in and buy a used baseball stadium, especially not knowing whether the Cardinals were going to be here or not, so I think it is an economic development issue, it’s a quality of life issue, it’s an investment for the city, and I think that’s going to be something that’s going to be debated.”
Schilling, too, expects debate, especially now that the City Council’s discussion will begin in open session and include a public hearing Feb. 6. However, he believes there is money in the city’s budget for economic development that can carry the $12 million deal with another $4 million upfront for stadium improvements.
“I think we’ve planned for that with the budget, so there might be people that argue, ‘Well, we’ve got a lot of other things that need doing, too,’ but hopefully, this will be able to carry itself on its own merit,” Schilling said.
Schilling gave examples of space limitations at the landfill and Springfield’s population of homeless and unsheltered persons as key issues that the City Council needs to make funding decisions about, but it still makes room in the budget for parks and recreational amenities.
“It’s a balancing act,” Schilling said.
Springfield’s sports tourism spending
Sports tourism is a key point of emphasis for the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Springfield city government, and for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board.
Three multimillion Springfield projects built around sports are economic keys in the public and private sector. The CVB hopes the public revamping of Cooper Park, the retooling of the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds, and the private development at Betty and Bobby Allison Sports Town in west Springfield will all lead athletes and their families to the Ozarks for years to come.
Baseball fields are on two of the three sites.
“Baseball is a part of the identity of this community,” Gage said. “It’s not just a sport, not that that’s not good enough; it’s part of our identity. It’s that important.”
The Park Board will receive more than $22 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for renovations at Cooper Park and Sports Complex in an effort to attract more games and larger events. Cooper Park is home to Lake Country Soccer’s fields, the Killian Sports Complex and softball stadium and the Cooper Tennis Complex.
Gage said the city’s purchase of the Hammons Field stadium ensures Springfield has professional baseball for the next 15 years.
Mayor Ken McClure said the city’s purchase also opens the possibility of the stadium developing into a four seasons facility, capable of hosting non-baseball and even non-sporting events.
“If the City Council formally approves these agreements for the purchase of the stadium, its doors will be open to the community hosting what we hope to become the type of signature events that you have come to appreciate and expect from the city of Springfield,” McClure said. “Movie nights, family-friendly activities, and a new and improved children’s play area, fireworks shows — the sky is the limit and it’s our responsibility to swing for the fences.”
Cardinals and city are trying to sell the dream
Springfield Cardinals General Manager Dan Reiter points to the pending stadium transaction as the second-most important day in the 18-year history of the club. Yes, more important than when the Cardinals won the Texas League championship in 2012, because he says the stadium deal carries a longer-lasting impact to the community.
Four original staff members from the very first Springfield Cardinals opening day are still working in the team’s front office, and Reiter is one of them.
“You fast forward 18 years later and concepts have turned into traditions,” Reiter said.
There are traditions on the field, and there are traditions of doing whatever it takes to bring people out to see a game and put some sales tax dollars into Springfield’s economy.
“We exist for two reasons,” Reiter said. “We exist to help the St. Louis Cardinals win their next world championship — any way possible, and we exist to make our community better.”
Matt Carpenter, Tommy Edman, Kolten Wong, Paul DeJong, Luke Voit, Dakota Hudson and the late Oscar Taveras are among the Springfield Cardinals who went on to make splashes in the major leagues. More than 6 million fans have attended Cardinals games in the past 18 years. Reiter said the Cardinals have also contributed $2.5 million to local charities and nonprofits.
“Yes, we love this community, and we feel the love back,” Reiter said. “We have to make people feel that we are worth it.”
