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SATURDAY, SEP TEMBER 19, 2020 • KOKOMO TR I BUNE PROGRESS EDI T ION
BY TYLER JURANOVICH
KOKOMO TRIBUNE
I
f you build it, they will come.
That’s the motto officials
are adopting for Champion-
ship Park, baseball and softball
complex that is currently under
construction and is expected
to host travel sport leagues on
the weekend at what is now
Darrough Chapel Park.
City officials, council
members, project developer
Steve Henke and former Major
League Baseball pitcher and
Kokomo native Joe Thatcher
spoke on June 17 at the project’s
groundbreaking.
Those who spoke say the
complex will not only attract
the dozens of travel teams who
find themselves on the waitlist
to play at Westfield’s similar but
much larger 31 multi-purpose
field Grand Park complex, but
also the out-of-town families
who will spend their money at
area restaurants and hotels.
“It [Grand Park] has paid off
immensely for them [West-
field],” said Henke, CEO of
Henke Development Group,
which also developed Grand
Park. “I think there was some-
thing like 200,000 hotel room
nights last year as a result of
Grand Park. This brought a tre-
mendous economic development
for restaurants, services, barber
shops and grocery stores with
people coming to town.”
City officials are hoping for
a similar residual effect when
Championship Park opens.
The $11.4 million complex will
include four high-school-sized
and four youth-league-sized
fields, concessions, parking and
restrooms. All the fields will be
outdoors and are meant to also
support soccer and other sports.
The city will own the fields but
will contract out the daily man-
agement of them.
Construction – led by Henke
Development Group – is
currently underway, with com-
pletion planned for November
and play beginning in spring
2021.
Directly east of the complex,
Henke is planning on developing
commercial property, includ-
ing multiple restaurants and
service industry businesses and
possibly a few hotels. Henke told
the Tribune earlier this month
he hopes to begin selling com-
mercial leases later this year.
The property taxes from the
commercial development will go
toward paying the $10.6 million
bond the city is selling to pay for
the complex’s construction.
Looming large over the devel-
opment is the effect it will have
on the city’s youth baseball and
softball leagues, which have
seen declining membership over
the past several years. It’s a topic
that has been brought up every
time the project has been dis-
cussed in public meetings.
Wednesday was no differ-
ent, with officials believing the
leagues will benefit and possibly
see a revival due to Champi-
onship Park giving the kids
state-of-the-art fields to play on.
The Eastside, Southside, North-
side and UCT youth baseball,
Babe Ruth and local softball
leagues will consolidate into
one league in 2021 as the newly
formed Kokomo United Baseball
and Softball Organization [KUBS]
and is expected to play games at
Championship Park during the
weekdays while also maintaining
and utilizing their current ball-
parks for practices.
“This Championship Park is
really going to give us an oppor-
tunity to move baseball and
softball into the next phase, into
the future,” Thatcher, chairman
of KUBS, said. “Traditionally
... the kids stayed locally and
played with their friends, but
now with the KUBS organization
and having a citywide league,
kids are going to have the oppor-
tunity to play with other kids
from all different parts of our
community. In these days and
these times, it’s important to
have that diversity.”
BREAKING GROUND ON CHAMPIONSHIP PARK
SPORTS COMPLEX EXPECTED TO BE COMPLETED BY SPRING 2021
COMMERCE
SPOTLIGHT
At a groundbreaking ceremony for Championship Park,
held at Darrough Chapel Park on June
17, retired pro baseball player Joe Thatcher talks about what a great facility this will be for the youth of
Kokomo.
(Kokomo Tribune file photo)
Kokomo Tribune photos by Tim Bath
Work continues on Championship Park
at the former Darrough Chapel Park site on the eastside of Kokomo on Sept. 14, 2020.
