OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Ballpark Group members are looking for help from the town to get the park ready for a national collegiate baseball tournament next spring.
In May, The Ballpark will host the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association’s national baseball tournament for small colleges.
A Town Council workshop was held Tuesday night regarding The Ballpark.
Tom Lachance, who heads the town’s Ballpark Group, said the USCAA National Baseball Tournament is the biggest tournament for players at the community college level.
“This to them, is just like the World Series,” said Lachance.
Lachance said that the event will last several days and will have other activities besides baseball games.
“It will be more like a festival,” he said.
Ballpark Group member Dave Goyet gave a breakdown of anticipated tournament expenses, which the group believes to be about $37,000. Costs include umpires, a lobster and clambake and gift bags for the players, tent rental for music and additional concessions and bus rentals to take participants on trips.
“We want to make this as professional as we can,” said Goyet.
The group projected the tournament will bring about $126,000 to area hotels, restaurants and businesses.
It has projected the tournament, through local sponsorship, fundraisers and admission charges will generate about $81,000 in revenue.
Although The Ballpark group has received an impressive amount of help, including more than $280,000 worth of in-kind donations of materials and service, and has made great strides over the past year and a half, group members said they need help from the town to have the park ready for the tournament.
Ballpark Group member Dana Furtado said many of the people the group is seeking support from in the spring are the same people who have donated to the project in the past, and the group can’t keep on leaning on the same people.
“The well is kind of drying up for these people,” said Furtado.
Andrea Berlin, chairwoman of the Conservation Commission, which oversees The Ballpark Group, said the group could continue plugging away as it has been, but an opportunity has arisen and it needs help from the town to get the clubhouse up to code so that everything will be ready for the tournament in the spring.
Ballpark group members said the facilities in this building ”“ locker rooms and showers ”“ are needed by the players in the tournament.
Acting Town Manager Jack Turcotte said that he recently went through the park with an insurance inspector, and there are some safety improvements that need to be made at The Ballpark.
Some of the improvements needed to reduce potential injury at the stadium include replacing cracked plastic seats, filling gaps in the concrete, and reducing the gap between handrail fixtures and stairs.
Turcotte said he supported the efforts of The Ballpark group.
“I’m 100 percent behind the development of this ballpark,” he said.
Turcotte said that there isn’t an awful lot of land left to develop in Old Orchard Beach, and he saw The Ballpark development as “an economic booster shot.”
“I don’t care if it makes any money for the town,” said Council Chairwoman Sharri MacDonald. She said that if The Ballpark brought people in the community together, “that was more significant than money.”
MacDonald asked the committee to come up with an estimate on the cost to get the clubhouse in working order and other items needed such as lighting to Turcotte.
Town Councilor Laura Bolduc said she was impressed with improvements at The Ballpark, which she said improved the value of the town. The property used to be a “white elephant,” she said, and now “it has value.”
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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