Cooperstown Dream Park Could Become A Nightmare
10 August 2009, 3:29 PM. By Jack Tomas
Cooperstown, NY has announced that it is going forward with a plan to build a giant youth league park named “The Dream Park.” Cooperstown houses the Baseball Hall of Fame and the town lives mostly on the brisk tourist trade of baseball nuts that make the trek upstate. The park is to be built in the adjoining town of Romeoville, a mile or so from the Hall of Fame. This new park will be built on baseball’s most hallowed ground supposedly for the players of tomorrow, but is it just a cynical corporate ploy to exploit the town and folks of Cooperstown or do they really give a shit.
There is a park at Cooperstown already, Doubleday Park, but it is a relatively small park and they reportedly had to turn away 1000 teams from playing there last year. The park is a popular destination for little league, minor league, and international league teams as it is supposedly the birthplace of baseball. The plan is to build a huge facility that is made up of 5 replicas of famous Major League parks, (Yankee Stadium, Minute Maid Park, Fenway Park, US Cellular Field, and Wrigley Stadium) on a plot of land currently owned by Lewis University in the village of Romeoville. The university would lease the land to the village who in turn would lease it to the MLB. The MLB wants the village to put up a 4 million dollar bond that would be paid back over 25 years. It’s a gamble, but one that could pay off big for the village if all goes well. If it doesn’t go well the village is pretty much screwed as it will then be in debt to the MLB, the bank that granted the bond, and to the university. There is concern that they won’t attract enough teams to make it a worthwhile investment. If it is just, say tournament events or championships, that would come up so sporadically that the parks would stay dark most of the time.
The MLB is taking a huge risk with the town of Romeoville. Cooperstown itself has no need to worry as the MLB runs the Hall of Fame, Doubleday Field, and many of the town’s businesses. Then again, Cooperstown is pretty much just the Hall of Fame, the stores, and some houses, not much of a town anymore. It all sounds great, but like any deal there is always fine print. In this case it is that the town is taking on the majority of the debt. This is true of any investment but they have the most to lose, as the MLB and the university can take the hit without having too much happen. The village is meeting to decide what they are going to do, on whether they will get the bond and lease the land from the university. The MLB is a corporation, a multi-billion dollar corporation, that rides in promising great with rewards but keeping most of the profits. They are like the mob in baseball caps.
Cooperstown has been sacred territory for over a hundred years. It was here that a young man named Abner Doubleday invented the game with his buddies in an old cow pasture. Doubleday went on to be a great civil war general for the Union and fought bravely at Gettysburg. This story is probably as much a pile of bullshit as was in that cow pasture. In 1905 Abraham Mills, head of the National League, formed a commission to figure out the origins of baseball. What they come up with was the Abner Doubleday story, which is a pretty great story if you think about it. In the beautiful pastoral setting of upstate New York a young man invents America’s pastime and later fights to save America from rebellion and slavery. In the end it doesn’t really matter what the truth is as long as it gives people something to believe in, which is why the folks of Cooperstown and Romeoville have done this deal with the MLB. They have faith that the MLB will not screw them over. We’ll see.
Village May Score Youth Sports Park [Suburban Chicago News]
Cooperstown Dream Park [Funrose]
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There are a few items that need clarification here: “There is a park at Cooperstown already, Doubleday Park, but it is a relatively small park and they reportedly had to turn away 1000 teams from playing there last year.” I think you’re referring to Cooperstown Dreams Park, rather than Doubleday Field. CDP is a private business which hosts 100+ teams each week for tournaments for 12 weeks from June to August. Located three miles south of Cooperstown, its headquarters are in North Carolina. Doubleday Field is a Works Progress Administration era baseball field and grandstands owned and operated by the Village of Cooperstown government and rented to individual teams of mainly adult vacationers there for a little hardball nostalgia. For two weekends each summer, the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum (NBBHoF) rents the field for a couple of exhibition games, which up until a year ago included a Major League Baseball (MLB) exhibition game (the last one was rained out).
Also: “Cooperstown itself has no need to worry as the MLB runs the Hall of Fame, Doubleday Field, and many of the town’s businesses. Then again, Cooperstown is pretty much just the Hall of Fame, the stores, and some houses, not much of a town anymore.” While MLB has a close connection with the NBBHoF through its board of directors and various agreements, the Hall is a stand-alone 501(c)3 educational institution owing its history to the Clark family, who created the Hall as another tourist attraction to benefit The Otesaga Resort Hotel (c. 1909). Jane Forbes Clark is chair-person of the Hall board and the Clark Foundation, the family charitable arm, financially supports the Hall as needed. And while downtown Cooperstown and many (not more than 2,000 low-wage) jobs are dependent on baseball tourism (there are other forms of tourism in Cooperstown, and have been for longer than the BBHoF) - and it diversifies the small-town business climate - tourism is a minor player in the local economy. NYS Tourism estimates that tourism in Otsego County (62,000 residents, 1,000 square miles) generates $127 million, including other tourist destinations (Glimmerglass Opera, National Soccer Hall of Fame, second homes, etc). Compare that to the $300 million operating budget of Bassett Healthcare (3,000 jobs), a major research/education hospital two blocks from Main Street in the Village of Cooperstown (2,000 residents; 1 square mile).
So do we need Cooperstown Dreams Park and the more than $8.4 million it generates in fees alone (100 teams x 10 players per team x $700 per player x 12 weeks), not including other spending on family accomodations, food and trinkets? No - and remember that the CDP headquarters are in North Carolina, although payroll and supplies probably stay locally. But it’s a nice, diversified addition, and summertime student employment base, to the relatively small local economy for only 12 weeks.
It’s hard to figure out where to start pointing out all that is wrong with this “article.” One, the field would be built in Romeoville… ILLINOIS. That would mean rather than “a mile or so from the Hall of Fame” it would be more like 800 miles. This is suburban Chicago, thus the replica of both Wrigley and US Cellular Field. Two, MLB has no affiliation with the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is a separate entity which is why players who are banned from baseball can still be voted into the Hall of Fame - they just haven’t been to date. I think I’m just going to stop there because the whole of the “article” has basically been destroyed. Do you actually do any research before you write or do you see a headline and a photo and just start posting rants?