USA BASEBALL'S NEW TRAINING CENTER OPENS

USA Baseball's National Training Center officially opened its doors yesterday and the place could not have looked better.  In 2005 Paul Sieler, Executive Director of USA baseball brought us on board to manage the project and through a lot of ups and downs the finish product really hit a home run.  The Town of  Cary should be proud of this professional level facility.  The Town took a big step forward last year in hiring Jimmy Simpson to head up the field operations. With his experience at the Bulls stadium he was able to put together a crew to get the fields up and running.

Also a  big thanks Chad Olsen and Erik Frey …between them they spent a lot of time on this project making sure specifications were followed and the fields were installed to professional level standards.  Total construction costs for the complex were $11 million dollars with one-million dollars coming from the Wake County Occupancy and Prepared Food/Beverage tax funds and the remainder from the Town of Cary.  The USA Training Complex is located within the 221 acre Thomas Brooks Park and includes four baseball fields – a stadium field and three training fields – all with dimensions of 330 feet down the lines and 400 feet in centerfield.  The grass is 419 Bermuda turf and is maintained with John Deere Equipment.  All fields are maintained at MLB standards.

The stadium field has a press box that includes two suites, an official scorer’s room, a sound room and a press row. The stadium has spectator seating for 1,754 people, including handicapped accessible seating, and additional grass seating for approximately 250 people. All fields have access to restroom facilities and a concession building.