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I've wanted to post something here in the Indiana form for a couple years now as we've been putting plans for this complex together.

Yesterday, it all finally became real. Here is a link to the Anderson Herald who did a fantastic job at covering the press conference.

http://heraldbulletin.com/loca...all-baseball-complex

I hope this will get some people excited here. It's going to be a great thing for Indiana Baseball & Softball. The planned facility will be as nice as any in the country and our training staff is fantastic. It's headed by Michael Shirley who has several (15, including Adam Lind) former students playing at the Major and Minor league levels, not to mention all of the college guys he’s trained/worked with over the years.

It's been a long time in the works and I'm unbelievably happy to be able to finally announce it.
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Thanks Woody... Based on the number of replies, I guess it's really got to be something special to get the Indiana folks fired up... lol

Maybe once the snow stops falling they will get back into baseball mode.

We do hope that some of you Illinois guys will bring a team or 2 over to play some games from time to time. It's not that far of a drive to Anderson, IN.
This sounds/looks fine and dandy. What are the chances it really happens AND is a quality complex? A little of $4M is a lot of money in general terms but it isn't much when considering there are 15 fields on the layout and a monster indoor facility. The indoor facility will take almost 1/4 or 1/5 of the money projected to be used for the facility, the fields can't be state of the art unless they are all turf and it just doesn't seem possible with the amount of money left, and where is Anderson (kidding, but it's not really a destination spot with much to do other than Colts training camp). Saw a "state of the art facility" with just 8 fields, all turf, lights and no indoor facility going up in another state and they are spending $20M because the land was donated for the complex. That sounds state of the art...$4M sounds great but can that get it done?

Aren't there talks of similar "state of the art" complexes that are suppose to go up in Westfield, Columbus and perhaps Indianapolis. We all love baseball in Indiana but is it really feasible for all of these new complexes to survive?
Sti6Ball, that's probably a fair question.

The chances are VERY good that it's really going to happen AND that it's going to be a quality complex. I wouldn't have posted if we weren't confident that we had most every base covered. Is there a chance that something could still happen that would jeopardize the projects start date, certainly there is. But we feel that there isn’t much, short of a further collapse of the financial system we have today, that would stop the project from kicking off in the spring.

If you will go back and read the article again, you'll notice that it's expected to be a $6M project, not $4M. The land purchase has already been secured, the agreement with the city is 99% completed and there are several other aspects of the financing package, including substantial private investments, which are all but wrapped up. So yes, the project will kick off in the spring. We have also done our homework on the cost of building what we have planned. The construction prices (material & labor) right now due to the economy are much lower than they were a few years ago and we have budgetary quotes on many of the features including the building and fields. The expected budget for the project will allow us to build something that is “state of the art”, including turf on a few outdoor fields (not all). The softball girls don’t like turf…

As for the other complexes that have been rumored to be planned around Indiana, I really can't speak to those. If they happen, great. If they don't, great. It really shouldn't effect what we have planned. We have what we feel are the best trainers and baseball people in the area associated with the project. Between them, we think that we can offer some things that not many others in the area are going to be able to. We have spent 2 years developing connections and partnerships with various companies and organizations that we feel will be able to add to the experience and help us separate The Farm from any other complex here in Indiana. It’s all about the players, their families and helping them get to the next level. As long as we never lose sight of that, we should be just fine.

I hope that answers some of your questions, but I guess only time will tell if we are able to really accomplish what we have set in motion with the announcement last Tuesday. I will keep this thread updated as we move closer to breaking ground.

TheBigNasty, thanks for the support.
sportsfan5 Thank you for the insight. I only pose those questions because we, too, get excited about the opportunity to see quality complexes built in and around the Indiana region. Teams from the state will have better opportunities with this kind of complex in the region so don't take the comments the wrong way. Who is running the tournaments that will undoubtedly lead to success or failure at the complex? Are you guys running them yourselves or bringing in a 3rd party to get the ball rolling at the complex?
quote:
Originally posted by Sti6Ball:
sportsfan5 Thank you for the insight. I only pose those questions because we, too, get excited about the opportunity to see quality complexes built in and around the Indiana region. Teams from the state will have better opportunities with this kind of complex in the region so don't take the comments the wrong way. Who is running the tournaments that will undoubtedly lead to success or failure at the complex? Are you guys running them yourselves or bringing in a 3rd party to get the ball rolling at the complex?


I don't mind the questions or comments at all. Actually, we welcome them. Trying to figure out what is important to people and what they all care about is 1/2 the battle.

As for who will be running the tournaments? I think we are open to all possibilities at this time. But if it's a 3rd party, we want to make sure they are in it for the right reasons. I've been to too many tournaments that were simply being ran to make money for some person or group. Although I realize the tournament has to make money, it doesn't have to be the sole purpose and all that is cared about. There won't be a kid taking gate fees that's more interested in posting on FB than he/she is about making sure the person paying to come through the gate knows where their team is playing at and is genuinely interested in making that person's experience as enjoyable as possible. Fields will be prepared between games, trash will be picked up, rest rooms will be clean, etc, etc, etc.

Our group as a whole has a lot of experience both participating in, and running tournaments. Its no secrete who I am or who my son is. Needless to say, throughout his and his brother's youth playing days, we spent more than our fair share of time at tournaments around the country. I've seen the tournaments that were well ran and that we wanted to go back to year after year. And I’ve seen the tournaments that we didn’t enjoy and would never take a team back to. The enjoyable tournaments are what we want to run or have run for us here. Quality tournaments that organizations want to come back to year, after year, after year.

Feel free to ask questions or post comments any time. I'll do my best to answer them as honestly as I can. I may not agree with everything someone has to say, but you will get an honest answer from me.
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My father was a Hoosier (Rensselaer). The transition would be very easy.

If I had the dough and the dough I'd strongly consider wandering over to Indiana. Our Governor Quinnocchio, as he is now dubbed, and his cronies have made The Land of Lincoln quite inhospitable.

My wife can cook and I'm still pretty good at busing tables! And PG swears by (or at?) those loose meat sandwiches.

Seriously, much success to you. Perhaps one of my daughters' teams may utilize your complex upon completion.




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