Lumber Yards sports complex coming to Williamsport
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City breaks ground on Williamsport Lumber Yards sports complex
Williamsport Lumber Yards will be a baseball and softball complex. The project received a $4.5 million grant, including more funding from Lycoming County and the city of Williamsport. The seven field complex will have turf and will be used for collegiate games, tournaments, and other sports. The city purchased the property that used to be an old landfill at the end of 2019, but struck out on plans to start construction due to pandemic.
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Play ball! Area officials set the lineup Friday morning in Williamsport at the future location of the Williamsport Lumber Yards, a baseball and softball complex coming to the city. The first conversations about the $22 million project date back to 2016.
“It’s something that we are looking at for the youth sports industry and looking at being able to take and maximize the brand that Williamsport has in the youth sports sector,” said Jason Fink, Williamsport Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce President/CEO.
The city purchased the property that used to be an old landfill at the end of 2019, but struck out on plans to start construction due to the pandemic. The project received a $4.5 million grant, including even more funding from Lycoming County and the city of Williamsport.
“It was something that we talked about long and hard, we actually did a feasibility study to really understand would this make sense for us everything came back positive which is why we’re taking on the project. It’s something that we looked at the numbers,” said Fink.
The seven field complex will have turf and will be used for collegiate games, tournaments, and other sports.
“We’ll do adult programming, we’ll do youth programming, we’re gonna have camps, we’re gonna do it in synergy with a lot of the facilities that are already in place locally, we’re gonna be working with a lot of groups here that already have programming or capacity issues,” said Andrew Ballard, Eastern Sports Management Inc. Chief Operating Officer.
Eastern Sports Management Inc. helps build, design, operate, and optimize sports facilities across the country. Andrew Ballard is the Chief Operating Officer at ESM. He says this complex is a perfect fit for the city since it’s where the Little League World Series was born.
“From the start of the concept, we tried to figure out how we can marry the local community and sports tourism and also be sustainable financially and get the best experience for the customers,” said Ballard.