The overflow crowd at Monday’s City Council meeting. Photo by Jon Lewis
Baseball moms, hockey dads, softball coaches and kids by the dozens packed the Redding City Council chambers Monday night to learn what’s to become of their beloved—and now shuttered—Big League Dreams sports park.
The complex, a private-public partnership that opened to considerable fanfare in August 2004, locked its gates last week. The standing-room-only crowd spoke as one during the special meeting: they want the park to reopen as soon as humanly possible and they’re willing to pitch in and help.
“We all want to keep the park open,” assured Vice Mayor Julie Winter, who presided over the meeting with Mayor Tenessa Audette participating remotely.
The hurdles are significant, according to City Manager Barry Tippin and Travis Menne, director of community services, and the biggest one is money. It will take $3 million to get the ballfields into marginally playable shape and another $7 million to get the facility into its previous position.
Park operators, whose lease contract with the city was terminated Monday by a unanimous vote, owe the city $215,182 in past rent. Tippin said the operators had been suffering annual losses of about $400,000 a year. The Covid-19 pandemic, inflation, competition from other markets and the 2008 recession were all factors in the park’s demise. Texas-based Big League Dreams and its nine complexes was acquired by TC Sports in 2022 and TC Sports took over the 35-year lease with the city.
Barry Tippin, left, and Steve Bade in front of a photo of Big League Dreams. Photo by Jon Lewis
Tippin said the operators have been forthright with the city about their struggles. From the outset, the Big League Dreams business plan hinged in part on attracting out-of-town tournament players and guests, Menne said, and that market failed to fully materialize.
Photo by Jon Lewis
Photo by Jon Lewis
“They underestimated costs and overestimated revenue,” Tippin said.
The list of deferred maintenance projects is long and includes turf replacement, stadium seat replacements, restroom upgrades, sand in the volleyball courts, outfield grading on the Pawtucket field and extensive painting.
Menne presented the council with three options: close Big League Dreams (foreclosing on the city’s initial $11 million investment and impacting other parks); contracting with another third-party operator (which would be difficult given Big League Dreams’ track record); or having the city operate it.
Money again surfaced as the biggest obstacle to that third option. Tippin noted the city is already anticipating a $5 million budget shortfall and the council will already be facing some tough decisions on where to cut services. Adding staff to run Big League Dreams (and covering a utility bill that runs from $15,000 to $20,000 a month) will make those budget decisions even harder.
The process of switching to a city-run park or contracting with another operator will take anywhere from six to 10 months, Tippin estimated.
Council member Joshua Johnson suggested a short-term arrangement where the baseball fields and indoor pavilion could be operated under the umbrella of the adjacent California Soccer Park, which has its own board of directors and insurance coverage in place. Kenny Breedlove, the soccer park’s executive director, was in attendance at Monday’s meeting.
Supporters emphasized the park’s importance to young athletes’ health and wellbeing. Photo by Jon Lewis
However it’s accomplished, a long line of public speakers made it clear that reopening Big League Dreams was essential to the physical and emotional needs of nearly every user.
Melody Mugridge, vice president of the Shasta Roller Hockey League, said the pavilion is home to the only roller hockey rink between San Jose and Medford, Ore., and her league uses it four days a week. “We’d love to collaborate with the city” and help run it, she said.
Brenda Woods, a self-described “hockey grandma,” put it bluntly: “They do not have another option. This is it for them.”
“This rink saved my life,” said a teen-aged hockey player. “If we lose it, I’m losing the biggest part of myself.”
Talon Overstreet has played ball at Big League Dreams since 2010. Photo by Jon Lewis
Talon Overstreet said he has been playing Little League baseball and, later, softball at Big League Dreams since he moved to Redding. He said he’s in favor of the city taking over the operation. “If you build it, the money will come,” he added, paraphrasing from the movie “Field of Dreams.”
Lee Lamp said Big League Dreams fell into disrepair due to the lack of oversight by the city and encouraged the city to take the reins. “Take it on. Own it. You already do, now work it. It’s a city park—own it.”
As the three-hour meeting drew to a close, a unanimous council directed Tippin and Menne to meet with softball, baseball, hockey and Roller Derby league representatives and Breedlove to see if a combination of volunteers and California Soccer Park staff can cobble together a workable short-term arrangement. Tippin is expected to report back in a month.
