Cortland N.Y. – Baseball may be America’s pastime, but for residents of Cortland the development of baseball fields has been more of a nightmare.
The Gutchess Lumber Sports Complex is a multi use park featuring four baseball diamonds on route 13 just outside of town in Cortland. The development of the park has been a long and convoluted process that has faced backlash ever since it was proposed.
The idea was initially proposed by the Cortland Regional Sports Council and sold to local officials and residents on the promise that it would boost the local economy with the tournaments and showcase events they could bring in. The question that residents wanted answers to was how much would it cost them.
Matt and Jen DeHart are the owners of Andersons farm market in Homer and residents of Cortland. They were initially in favor of the proposal before seeing the cost breakdown for construction of the first two fields at the complex.
“When you see something that says it’s going to cost almost four million dollars to build the thing it turns your head a little bit,” said Matt DeHart. “The town was on the hook for two and half million which means taxpayers are on the hook for that.”
While the initial cost for phase one of construction was estimated to be around four million dollars, that cost was partially offset by state and federal grants.
The Gutchess Lumber company also pitched in to help with the costs of building phase one of the project. The land that the complex is built on was previously owned by Gutchess Lumber and was sold to the town of Cortlandville in exchange for naming rights for the park.
When Prep Baseball Report chose the new facility to be the home base for their central New York tournaments, they agreed to help pay for the construction and continued development of the complex. The agreement has Prep Baseball report paying $218,000 yearly to help with costs.
Prep Baseball Report has been the main tenant since the complex officially opened in 2019 with their first two fields. Each spring starts their showcase and tournament schedule which runs until the fall.
These tournaments and showcase events bring in teams from all over the state and have been the main argument for the economic impact on the area.
Officials from the sports complex argued that hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other leisure businesses such as golf courses and bowling alleys would benefit from the influx of tourists in the summer months.
“I can say that we have seen an increase in business over the past few summers,”said the general manager of the Cortland Hampton Inn. “Whether or not that has anything to do with the baseball tournaments is not my liberty to say,”
Many residents routinely voiced their concern that the economic benefit to the region would not be enough to outweigh the costs associated with the continued development of the park. Town officials remain steadfast that there is sufficient economic impact during tournament season to more than justify the cost for construction.
For Jen DeHart the increase in business is enough to make it worthwhile but she and many others share worries that the increase in business won’t be sustained in the future.
“Right now we see a pretty good increase in sales when a tournament is in town,” Said DeHart. “I worry that eventually it’s going to level off, at which point there’s not enough of a reward for the taxes that we paid to build the park”
The plan is to continue developing the park to include 8 different multi use turf fields and to add in more cross country and hiking trails throughout the property. When all is said and done the total cost of the project is expected to reach over 20 million dollars.
When asked about the park and its development Parks and Recreation director for the town of Cortlandville John McNeary could not be reached for comment. His office did respond with a emailed statement reading:
“The Gutchess Lumber Sports Complex is a great facility for our community and has proven to benefit the greater Cortland area in a multitude of ways. The park is still in continued development and we are always taking feedback from the community on how we can best serve them.”
The town of Cortlandville did swap land that contained Citizens park on route 281 with Gutchess Lumber as part of the deal for the land the Gutchess Lumber Sports Complex was built on.