If you build it, they will come.
Just weeks after construction began downtown Kokomo for the new Kokomo Municipal Stadium, city officials made a major announcement about who would be playing there this coming spring with news that Kokomo will be getting a Prospect League baseball team.
The city announced the partnership with Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based MKE Sports & Entertainment Tuesday during a press conference at City Hall.
Team Owner Mike Zimmerman said he was thrilled to be bringing a Prospect League team to Kokomo, with plenty of other plans for the use of the stadium still in the makings. Zimmerman has experience in the sports world, as the owner of the Milwaukee Wave, a participant in the Major Arena Soccer League.
Kokomo will be the 12th team to join the league, which began its operations in 2008 to provide top collegiate level prospects with exposure to professional baseball throughout the Midwest.
Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight said the addition of a Prospect League team will have numerous benefits for the downtown and the city, with MKE funding many of the stadium’s basic operations.
MKE will pay the city a minimum of $22,500 for the use of the stadium, with various incentives that could boost that total to $100,000 a year in its five-year lease of the stadium. MKE Sports will be responsible for the maintenance of the stadium and will pay the electric, gas and water bills and trash removal at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.
“[Tuesday’s] announcement is about bringing family entertainment into the heart of our city in creating pedestrian activity in the afternoon and evening around Kokomo Municipal Stadium,” Goodnight said. “The bottom line is before the first pitch, Kokomo has scored a big win.”
The core of the new league was formulated to include current and former Frontier League teams in Chillicothe, Ohio, Richmond, Indiana, and Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Kokomo sits nearly in the center of the league’s geography, with teams from Richmond and Terre Haute, along with Hannibal, Missouri; Quincy, Danville and Springfield, Illinois; Champion City, Chillicothe and Lorain County, Ohio; Beckley, West Virginia; and Butler, Pennsylvania.
During the development process, the Prospect League began conversations with the team owners of the Central Illinois Collegiate League, which brought a 45-year summer collegiate league history to the table, as well as six teams within the footprint the Prospect League were looking to develop.
To date, the league has seen 263 of its players either drafted or signed in free agency to Major League Baseball organizations.
Zimmerman explains that the league will provide fans with a chance to see some of the top collegiate baseball talent in the country on display.
“Our vision is to have teams that are a mix of minor league independent baseball but also summer collegiate baseball,” he said. We’ve been all over the Midwest looking at opportunities.
"I have been all over the Midwest in the past six months looking for the right opportunity for baseball,” Zimmerman added. “After spending the day with Mayor Goodnight and city staff, as well as attending a local youth baseball game, I was hooked on Kokomo,” Zimmerman said. “The energy of the community with their love for sports and the revitalization project currently underway downtown is the perfect storm…. it’s a real recipe for success. I am truly humbled and grateful that the city has chosen my group to represent the great city of Kokomo."
The plan for the team’s name and logo will be a community effort, with the team announcing it will be holding a team naming contest, with the winning receiving a $2,500 cash, game tickets and prizes. Entries for team name, logo and team colors may be submitted online at www.kokomobaseball.com. A winner will be announced within the next 30 days.
“We want to work with the community to come up with the best name, look and feel for the team,” Zimmerman said.
When visiting the team’s new website, visitors also can put down a $100 deposit on tickets for the upcoming season. Prices for season and individual game tickets have not yet been solidified, Zimmerman said residents can expect game tickets to start at around $8 each.
Tuesday’s announcement came pending league approval and approval from the Kokomo Board of Public Works and Safety.
Thinking long-term, Zimmerman is excited about what Kokomo has to offer as a team in the Prospect League, in addition to its geography and history as a sports-hungry city.
“We actually like the [Prospect League] better for Kokomo,” he said. “The opportunity with the Prospect League is to do something really meaningful in baseball. We think we can put Kokomo on the map in terms of becoming a significant player in baseball.”
Prospect League Board of Directors President Bryan Wickline said league officials were excited about the city’s plans for Kokomo Municipal Stadium and the city’s geography in relation to the other 11 teams in the league.
“We feel as a league it’s going to be the best stadium in the league,” he said. “For towns like Kokomo, this is the thing to do in the summer months. This is going to be the biggest social event for two and a half months. We think we can bring a lot of positive influences to the town, not just in baseball, but bringing a sense of pride.
“This is going to be the gem of the Prospect League,” he added, referring to Kokomo Municipal Stadium.
Wickline said the league hasn’t narrowed down a specific number of teams the Prospect League will settle on, but it will be speaking with “easily a dozen towns” that we have been talking to over the last six months.
“We don’t have anyone else coming to the league in 2015, obviously, but in 2016 and beyond there will be even more interest in the Prospect League,” he said.
The new team will compete in the Prospect League and will play all of its home games at the new 4,000-capicity Kokomo Municipal Stadium. It is the first new baseball stadium in Kokomo since Highland Park Stadium was built in 1955. That stadium was once home of the Kokomo Dodgers (1956-1961), a minor league affiliate of the former Brooklyn Dodgers.
Goodnight pointed out that the Dodgers squad produced Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, with the city’s baseball tradition continuing into the modern era with Kokomo native Joe Thatcher in his seventh season in Major League Baseball with the Los Angeles Angels.
Before he made it to the Major Leagues, Joe rose through baseball’s amateur ranks playing for the Quincy Gems of the Prospect League.
“The summer I played for the Quincy Gems was one of the best experiences of my amateur career,” Thatcher said. “The competition and coaching was great. The City of Quincy really supported us, and I am very confident that this will be a plus for our community as well. I am very excited that Kokomo will be offering the same experience to these college-age players.”