Big League Gets Closer To Start

Yesterday I mentioned Higley Groves' neighbor to the west, the magnet school. Today's AZ Republic has an article about Highland Groves' neighbor to the east, Big League Dreams:

It's not a pipe dream anymore.

What will become Gilbert's largest multisports complex is soon to take shape.

Designers and town officials have been working the last few months to mold a publicly funded Big League Dreams baseball park into a reality.

The facility could open as soon as next summer, according to town officials.

A lot of the work so far has been done on paper, specifically on blueprint sketch pads and computer printouts.

But perhaps in a matter of weeks, the first clumps of dirt will be overturned, said Paul Mood, Gilbert's Capital Improvement Program coordinator.

Big League Dreams enters private-public partnerships with municipalities to build scaled-down sports fields with facades of major-league stadium backdrops.

Concepts for the Gilbert park include Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field and the Polo Grounds.

Arizona Diamondbacks fans need not fret - there will be a Chase Field.

Baseball isn't all that will go on at the park. Plans also call for a clubhouse, batting cages and a pavilion.

Photos of the project's replica stadiums have been shown at open houses held off-and-on the last few weeks. The last one was Wednesday.

Mood said many of the necessary design documents have been filed, allowing construction to begin in July. If that timeline holds, the facility could be ready to open by July 2007, he said.

Illustrations are just the latest development in Gilbert's nearly two-year-long plan to convert 63 acres of one-time alfalfa land into a revenue-generating mecca for sports and other entertainment in town.

The land is on Elliot Road between Recker and Power roads.

When completed, the Big League Dreams project will represent the largest one-time park expenditure in town history.

Under a development contract, Gilbert will cover all $23 million in construction costs, and Big League Dreams would pay for operations and maintenance.

Both entities will share the revenues. Gilbert's cut has been estimated at $500,000 to $1 million annually.

Big League Dreams and the town have had engineering sessions the last few months to find ways to keep construction and planning costs from inflating, said Don Webber, vice president of development for Big League Dreams USA LLC, the project's parent company. The company estimates that as many as 400,000 visitors would be drawn to the complex each year for tournaments, league games and other events, the study states.

I really understand the part about the planning all being on computers and sketch pads; it still amazes me how much work goes into a project before a single shovel full of dirt is moved. And I understand the desire to keep construction costs from inflating, too. In the office yesterday I overheard a comment that the costs of two more components have gone up, one of which is copper. Perhaps you saw the newspaper article saying that the cost of a penny is actually 1.7 cents right now; this makes the copper tubing used in constructing houses that much more valuable. If these folks have some way of keeping the costs of construction down - or even level -maybe we should sit in on their engineering sessions.