2011 10yr old Cal Ripken World Series is coming to Winchester

Congrats to WPRD officials, Winchester Baseball as well as City Council approving the $75,000 needed for Winchester Baseball to host the World Series BUT lets get within the ballpark on the number of visitors, the number of hotels that will be needed and how much money will be spent within our local community.

How many people can Winchester/Frederick County expect to see coming into the local community and how profitable can it be?

"Through all our banners, tickets, concessions, after everything was done, the committee made around $75,000," said Rick Akers, parks and recreation director for Lamar, Colo., which hosted the event last summer. "We still made money, and we gave back to the kids."

Lamar raised about $70,000 from sponsorships and about $20,000 in admission tickets. A souvenir booth made about $10,500.

"We had good participation, good attendance, but you didn't see a lot of grandmas and grandpas like we thought we would," Akers said. Rights to the tournament come with a $40,000 price tag, and Lamar paid for it with a tourism tax.

Lamar, CO drew 24 coaches and 114 players. Most stayed 10 days and played on a new field built with grant money. About 250 adults and 200 children stayed in 140 hotel rooms, according to provided data.

The information and quotes above is more in the ballpark than this quote back in February 19, 2009 in a story featured within the Winchester Star:

Citing an economic analysis that Babe Ruth Baseball does for host cities, Brad Veach said that areas normally generate between $1.2 and $2 million over the 10-day tournament. That money comes from hotels (an estimate of 700 rooms needed) meals at local restaurants, gas and other expenditures.

What will the replacement cost be for the Handley Bowl's A-Turf?

Finally had a some dialog with the principal at Fort Hill School, Mr. Lewis and had several questions for him about the Field Turf facility at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

What was the cost to replace the Turf?
The initial turf in 1998 cost $620,000 and the replacement turf in 2008 was $690,000
 
To clarify, what type of Turf was install and what was used to replace it?
Field Turf and the grass on the turf was shot - broken down from UV rays and wear

How was it funded?
Replaced turf was funded from money on ticket sales from games over the last 10 years games ($1 on each ticket goes into a stadium account at the Board of Education Office) and BOE money

This is phase 1 of the renovation project for the Greenway Avenue Stadium. 

Callas (Hagerstown firm) awarded $3.2 stadium contract

So with that in mind, just wonder what the replacement bill for the Handley Bowl A-Turf will be coming in the 2019 time-frame?

Pictured below is of Greenway Avenue Stadium in Cumberland, MD on the campus of Fort Hill High School.

For further information about the Greenway Avenue Stadium and the history, please click on the following link:

http://www.forthillfootball.net/stadium.htm

Some history on Winchester Baseball

The following article clearly makes mention that Winchester Baseball was operating under Little League Baseball with hopes to make it to Williamsport, PA.

Article from Winchester Star, July 14, 1953

From the information that was gathered, Winchester could not beat Front Royal to advance.

Reason being, Winchester had (8) regular season teams and Front Royal had (6) teams to draw from BUT under the Little League rules, I assume the magic number was 8 for the regular season teams which meant that Winchester had to field (2) All-Star teams (American and National).

This is being shared because there have been questions about Winchester Baseball not being under the Little League umbrella but this document supports that WB did operate under Little League Baseball during the 50's.

The History “facts” on Winchester Baseball

February 18, 2010

I am writing in reference to the nonfactual letter that Mr. Steve Cunningham wrote on February 10, 2010 “Just plain nonsense” that was in the Winchester Star.

To educate Steve and everyone else on the history of Winchester Baseball, I got in contact with two individuals who grew up when it first started.

The facts that were given to me were as follows:

Winchester has not been involved with Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth Baseball for close to 50 years.

Winchester started baseball in 1952, it organized under Little League Baseball.  Winchester Little League Baseball stayed under that program until the mid-late 50’s.

After Winchester dropped out of LLB, the program became independent as it was called “Little Baseball League”

It joined Bambino under the Babe Ruth organization in the early 1980s

In 1953 Winchester started a 13-14 league that was ran by the Jr. Chamber of Commerce.  It was under the Pony League Program.

The JC’s built the Henkel Harris Field for this program.  It stayed under Pony League for a number of years.  After adding 15 year olds they had to drop out and play independent for a few years.

They were playing 13-15 year program on a Pony League diamond.  In the late 60’s or early 70’s they moved the pitchers mound back but still played on Pony League dimensions.

Winchester did not become a member of Babe Ruth League until the early-mid 80’s.  

Mr. Cunningham is further quoted via online Winchester Star website on the article "City agency is working on a new pitch for series" ... in the comment section:

To bring a Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken World Series to Winchester Yost Field needs upgrades that Brad Veach is advocating.  And City Council should do all that they can to bring this wonderful family event to Winchester.

I agree that Bridgeforth Field needs some work....in light of recent improvements nothing has been done since the field was built, however, shouldn't Shenandoah University and Handley High School be responsible for some costs since they use the field as much as the Royals?

In recent years neighboring localities have put their money where their mouth is.  Warren County schools funded the renovations to Bing Crosby stadium to make it a wonderful facility.

Loudoun County was the recipient of a large donation to [upgrade] Fireman's Field in Purcellville and as a result now almost annually hosts a Babe Ruth World Series for ages between 16-18.

Let everyone who shares in using the fields at Jim Barnett Park share in the expense of the upkeep and stop relying on Winchester Baseball to foot the bill for all field maintenance.

Steve, what field maintenance are you talking about?  Please inform all on what WB does on a daily/weekly basis for maintenance on the baseball diamonds?

Handley HS has joint agreement between WPRD and Winchester Public Schools as they both share each others facilities.  Handley HS is doing the remolding work at Bridgeforth press-box, dugouts and backstop.

What are these other teams/leagues that you talk about that use the same facilities that WB utilizes?

Mr. Cunningham, the Rose Family in 1998 made the donation.  Loudoun Babe Ruth has hosted just (4) World Series events to date. (18, 16, 13 and 15 year olds)

I did make an offer a suggestion to help foot the bill on the World Series, Frederick County tax-dollars should be involved since most of the players come from there.  If anyone reads the papers, the budgets are getting hammered with the latest snow storms.  Hence, the reason even more so why Frederick County needs to get involved.  If it's going to be on the shoulders of just the City of Winchester, the perception in the local papers does not look promising after the great expense for snow removal.

How can the structure of the league be “causing ill effects on Handley Baseball”?  The numbers that I provided about Handley baseball speaks volumes.

To close, if you had researched, you would have discovered that I have been involved with the Winchester Baseball league from 1989-1994.

Finally I have never stated that WB should not host the World Series but in my own opinion, I do not think the City of Winchester should be the sole provider in footing the bill to host this 10yr old World Series, especially during these epic budget constraints!

Mr. Cunningham, in the future please do your research before commenting!

Last question, do the Winchester Baseball umpires volunteer their time like the “Little League” umpires?

Concept Sketch for an Arena Downtown on the "walking mall"

This concept is of a building with a dimension of 180' x 287' with the "U" shape design.

There are (3) types of telescopic seating used in this diagram: portable bleachers (611), platform chairs (1308) and stadium chairs (801) for a total of 2720.  This does not include any loose seating in front of the bleachers or at the top of the second floor which would add a couple of hundred to that count.  So realistically with this design, we could be in the ballpark of 3,000 seats.

This is just one example.

WHY build an Arena on the Downtown Walking mall?

How many people could be drawn downtown on the walking mall area IF an Arena was constructed on the Loudoun Street "walking mall"?

If the Arena is constructed to accommodate in the ballpark of 3500-5000 seats then the following breakdown could be very realistic.

An average of 3,000 individuals x (3) events per week x (4) weeks per month x (12) months = 432,000 on a average per year would be "walking" on the downtown Loudoun Street walking mall.

An average of 2,500 individuals x (3) events per week x (4) weeks per month x (12) months = 360,000 on a average per year would be "walking" on the downtown Loudoun Street walking mall.

Let's use an average per individual spending $10-$20 per visit on the walking mall just alone that would equate to a ballpark figure of $3.6-$8.64 million dollars being spent within our local downtown area and that is NOT even including the hotel stays.

When factoring in a economic multiplier of 1.5, the local economy financial impact could range from $5.4-$12.96 million dollars annually.

OK, some might say (3) events per week is not realistic, fair enough, lets shoot for an average of (2) events per week.

An average of 3,000 individuals x (2) events per week x (4) weeks per month x (12) months = 288,000 on a average per year would be "walking" on the downtown Loudoun Street walking mall.

An average of 2,500 individuals x (2) events per week x (4) weeks per month x (12) months = 240,000 on a average per year would be "walking" on the downtown Loudoun Street walking mall.

$10-$20 per visit per individual spent on the walking mall would equate to a ballpark figure of $2.4-$5.76 million dollars being spent within our local downtown area.  Hotel stays are NOT calculated in this figure.

When factoring in the economic multiplier of 1.5, the local economy financial impact would be a range of $3.6-$8.64 million annually.