After 30 years of neglect at the ball diamonds at McCulley-Robertson Recreation Park, “we are paying the price,” says Peter Haynes, the president of the Muskoka Hornets Baseball Association. “We have a facility that is tired.”
In recent months, Huntsville’s Town Council has balked at the estimated $2.2 million price tag of needed repairs and upgrades to the baseball facility at McCulley-Robertson and other organizations that use the recreation park have stepped forward to say that their facilities are in need of some funding, too. Haynes doesn’t dispute those needs, but wants to make it clear that the high cost of what’s needed for baseball is a result of limited capital expenditure into the facility for three decades.
“If you divide $2.2 million by 30 years of neglect, that’s really $70,000 a year in (capital expenditure),” says Haynes. “If you look at it in those terms, I think that the number becomes a little bit more absorbable. It’s kind of like a generational tax on the current generation that the past generation has passed on.”
The ball diamonds were moved to McCulley-Robertson from near the arena in the mid-1980s. A hardball diamond was built the following decade. Two of the original diamonds were later turned into soccer pitches. There are now three baseball diamonds and one hardball diamond at the facility.
After falling on hard times, the Muskoka Hornets minor baseball program has seen a resurgence over the past 10 years. Adult leagues have been popular as well. Haynes estimates that there are about 1,000 players that use the facility each week in the summer: 260 for minor baseball, 350 in men’s slopitch, approximately 200 for ladies slopitch, 36 for men’s fastball, 120 for the mixed league, and another 25 for the senior league for a total of about 75 local teams. There are also about 125 volunteers that support those various programs.
The facility’s other major user group, the Huntsville Soccer Club, “has been a very good citizen and they always come with money in hand, I totally respect that,” says Haynes. “I would love nothing else than to have the same reputation in the community that the soccer program has built over 20 years. They have put in the hard labour to build those relationships with councillors and to build a program that is sustainable and certainly something for the Huntsville community to be proud of. What we have done with the Hornets is basically start from ground zero 10 years ago…and transformed our minor program into something to be extremely proud of in the same vein as soccer.”
He notes that the Muskoka Hornets have also, in recent years, begun to invest in the facility. They built the bunker on diamond F two years ago as well as the base for the new batting cage on diamond F this year, at a cost to the association of between $15,000 and $20,000 for the two projects.
Haynes also says that the diamonds are in use every day of the week by the various leagues and every other weekend for tournaments. By comparison, he says that he has observed that the soccer pitches at McCulley-Robertson are rarely used on weekends.
“By my calculation, last summer there were eight baseball tournaments at the facility that brought in over 2,000 people, most of them from out of town,” says Haynes. All of the tournaments hosted by the various leagues brings, “in my estimation…a million dollars in foot traffic for the local community between hotels, restaurants and other spending.” The Muskoka Hornets’ annual tournament, the Muskoka Cup sells out with close to 60 teams turned away this year. “People want to come, they love coming to Muskoka and hopefully that can continue. We want to make our facility look a little bit better for when they do come.”
Haynes says that given the number of users at the ball diamonds and the number of years that have passed with no major investment in the baseball facility, “I’m disappointed that we’ve gone to a point where it’s now going to have to be a shared expense.”
The association’s ask, which Haynes says is in line with that of the other user groups at the facility, included a new infield surface, warning tracks, fencing, lights, an increased length on diamond B, and an irrigation system. Of those, the infield and the warning tracks are most important to the association for player safety, but they are two of the issues that “the Town was not in alignment with the users on, which is very disappointing. They didn’t want to install warning tracks and they wanted to keep a similar surface to what’s there right now. We are hoping they listen to the users on both of those things.”
The Hornets would like to see a clay surface in the infield, ideally one similar to the new surface at the diamonds at Kerr Park in Bracebridge. “It’s easily manageable by Town staff once they are taught how to manage it and it’s what I would consider to be best of breed,” says Haynes.
As for the other requests, the fencing needs repair or replacement and the lights are old and have few fixtures at the top compared to a typical baseball facility, but the irrigation system is a nice-to-have feature and the shorter length of diamond B could be mitigated by fencing.
Each of the McCulley-Roberston stakeholder groups met one-on-one with Town staff and representatives from consulting group WSP on November 7. The results of those meetings will be presented at the November 26 Regular Council meeting, but the Hornets’ requests are in line with what the other ball diamond user groups are asking for. Infield material and warning tracks are top priority, although both the men’s fastball and slopitch leagues were less specific on the type of material and said they just wanted something that would improve performance.
Ultimately, Haynes would like to see the community foster baseball along with all of the other minor sports in the community. “We need the facilities in order to do so and that’s what we are looking for right now.”
Related stories:
Two-million dollar upgrade proposed for McCulley-Robertson ball diamonds
Huntsville Soccer Club asks ‘what about us?’ in McCulley-Robertson ball diamond redevelopment
Local group hoping to make Huntsville a mecca for disc golfers
Curling Club dream of new facility is challenging but “doable”: AGM
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Rob Millman says
Before even delving into this excellent article, I was thinking about 30 years of neglect in terms of player safety. If somebody comes to Huntsville for a tournament, and breaks a leg, or worse runs into a damaged fence and loses an eye; the Town would be on the hook for a substantial insurance claim. Perhaps, players sign a waiver prior to playing to obviate this situation?: In either case, it’s a black eye for a town which considers itself to be a mecca for tourism.
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Surely the infield surface and the warning track are considerably less expensive than dark-sky-friendly lighting and an underground drainage system. That this is the main ask at this time; that it promotes player safety; and that the clay surface is, by far, the most sustainable; why is Council balking? Of course, the Town has many mouths to feed, but by staging several of them, a solution should be possible.
Terry Clarke says
30 years ago the town was able to buy all that land for $65,000…..yes, it is time to spend some money to improve this wonderful facility.
Brian Dallier says
The current building at the ball diamond is not 30 years old it is close to it but not over 30.
The facilities were built around 23 years ago.
The original building was a double-wide trailer that is now the office at the fall fair grounds.
I should know since I had to clean the original building and the one that is there now.
I’m not saying that there isn’t need for improvement, but get your facts straight, and don’t complain that the facilities have been neglected for 30 years.
Years have passed, and yes the facility has seen wear and tear that happened do to the fact of usage. Outside of that the facilities are all right. I’m not saying that we couldn’t use a facelift on the property considering the fact that we have had such large groups there and continue to attract more groups. That being said we could probably use new dirt or the playing surface redone. The fact of the matter is Huntsville is becoming larger and we need a larger facility to incorporate everyone that wants to use the facilities end of story.
Ian Gibbard says
We seem to have all kinds of facilities for sports, but very little for the older citizens who have been funding in their taxes for years. When do you think that Huntsville will have an older adult center for these folks, if ever.