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General | Press Release | 12/10/2018

Prospect Meadows, PG eye '19

Jeff Dahn

Photo: Prospect Meadows (Perfect Game)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The months are counting down until the much-anticipated official opening of Prospect Meadows, the Midwest’s premier, state-of-the-art baseball/softball complex, and with that opening slated for the 2019 Memorial Day Weekend, excitement for the project continues to build.

And to provide a highlight for the inaugural season of play, Perfect Game Founder/President Jerry Ford and PG Vice President of Operations Taylor McCollough have announced that a PG Prospect Meadows National Championship tournament series will be held in June and July at the eight-field complex.

The PG national championship events, which will carry the name of a soon-to-be announced prominent national sponsor, will feature play in five age-groups: 13u (June 17-21); 15u (June 21-26); 14u (July 5-9); 17u (July 17-22) and 16u (July 26-31).

The age-group tournaments were strategically placed on the PG tournament calendar so they won’t interfere with corresponding play at PG WWBA, BCS and West national championships in Georgia, Florida and Arizona, respectively, in June and July.

“We are very excited about having a complex like this right here in our backyard after getting our start in Cedar Rapids 25 years ago,” PG’s Ford said. “We’re going to be able to bring in some of the top teams from across the country to compete against one another at a first-class facility.”

Prospect Meadows General Manager Jack Roeder, the long-time former GM of the Cedar Rapids Kernels Class A minor league team, acknowledged that the project wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without PG’s substantial support, and the national tournaments bring the facility instant credibility.

“Perfect Game has the ability to bring in a lot of teams and a lot of tournaments, which in turn (produces) a lot of positive things for the local economy,” Roeder said. “During my time with the Kernels we would think, here we have the world’s largest scouting service in our backyard but they really can’t do a whole lot in the state because … there just aren’t a lot of fields to play on during the summer.

“This will give Perfect Game the opportunity to bring in all the teams, the tournaments, the showcases, so it’s really exciting in terms of the economic impact and the quality of life; it’s really a nice package.”

The idea for Prospect Meadows was hatched in 2010, and the benefits to the local community it will ultimately provide are far-reaching, going well beyond those brought to the table by PG.

The complex sits on 128 acres of land just north of the Cedar Rapids/Marion Metropolitan Area in Linn County, Iowa, which is only about a four- to five-hour drive from the major metropolitan areas of Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha.

It will be constructed in two phases. Phase 1 features eight full-size fields with artificial turf infields, along with a Miracle Field that serves children and adults with physical or mental disabilities; the Miracle Field is positioned so that it greets visitors right inside the main entrance.

Phase 1 comes with a $14 million price tag with the money coming from private and public sources at roughly a 50/50 split. Phase 2 will feature eight additional fields, although they will be a slightly smaller, and it is scheduled for completion in 2023.

When Prospect Meadows isn’t hosting major PG tournaments or showcases, it will be used for local baseball and softball leagues and events. When Roeder was with the Kernels, he helped create an entity called the League of Dreams that catered to under-served second- and third-graders in the community. Prospect Meadows will allow the league to expand to serve fourth- through sixth-graders, as well.

The fields will also be full during weekends in the fall after school starts and a strong youth schedule is set to be put in place by the spring of 2020.

“It’s tremendously exciting because of what it will do for the community,” Roeder said. “It’s been a dream for a lot of people dating back to 2010 … so to see this come to fruition for all of those people is a lot of fun, also.”

For more information, please visit prospectmeadows.com and perfectgame.org.

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