By Megan Pillow
Mooresville Tribune
Published: May 5, 2010
Mooresville and NASCAR have been linked for years, but soon the town's name is going to be synonymous with another popular sport: youth baseball.Town commissioners announced Monday that a corporation affiliated with Cooperstown Dreams Park – a 22-field complex in New York often called the "crown jewel" of youth baseball, home to the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame – has chosen Mooresville to be the site of an $18 million-$21 million, 25-field youth baseball tournament complex.The facility would be the largest of its kind in America, officials said."It's one of those deals that comes along once in a million years," said Commissioner Mitch Abraham.
The complex, to be called America's Park Mooresville – has been in the works since July 2009. To be built on approximately 111 acres off Rankin Hill Road on Mooresville's north side, the complex is scheduled for completion by summer 2012. It will bring in an estimated $35 million annually in tourism revenue during the 13-week height of its summer season alone and could be used by 95 to 103 teams per week for tournaments, officials said.
In addition to several hundred parking spaces and 24 standard ball fields, the project will feature a 4,000-6,000-seat stadium."This is the Disney World of baseball," said Commissioner Mac Herring.Commissioner Chris Carney said town officials were surprised to discover that Mooresville was a contender among other cities across the country which were also courting the project. But, said Carney, Mooresville had several things going for it.
To read the full verson of this article, see today's Mooresville Tribune.
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