Baseball venue closing:
Citing dangerous safety conditions, the massive Big League Dreams in Gilbert is closing for repairs and will not reopen until 2019. The ballpark venue has been under of cloud of controversy and legal battles for years.
After years of controversy and legal battles, the massive Big League Dreams ballpark in Gilbert — once touted as the “Disneyland for Athletes” — shut its doors for repairs, citing “dangerous” safety conditions.
Big League Dreams, the operator of the town-owned ballpark, said it had no forewarning that the park would shutter Friday. The park won’t reopen until early 2019.
According to court records, Gilbert officials told Big League Dreams it planned to close the facility in September.
Schedules for the softball and soccer teams that play at the park were removed from the ballpark’s website Friday, replaced with a note stating, “All games have been canceled until further notice.”
Big League Dreams spokesman Chuck Jelloian said the company was “as surprised as anybody” about the Friday announcement.
“We want to apologize for any inconvenience this causes the public out there,” Jelloian said.
Gilbert issued a news release saying it will make $11.6 million in improvements to Elliot District Park, which encompasses the eight-field ballpark.
During a recent inspection, a consultant found major deficiencies with the park’s grandstands. The consultant said the conditions were “dangerous” and required repair or removal, according to documents obtained by The Arizona Republic through a public records request.
“The Town asked BLD-Gilbert to address those safety concerns in a timely manner, but unfortunately, BLD-Gilbert failed to do so,” the town’s attorney Robert Grasso said.
Grasso said the town needed to “take immediate action to protect the public.”
Who will foot the bill for these costly repairs is unclear.
The Gilbert website says repairs will be funded with money from a settlement after the town sued the builder of the ballpark for faulty construction.
But in May, the town sent a letter to park operator Big League Dreams Gilbert, a subsidiary of a California-based company, requesting it fork over the money for repairs. Town officials would not say if it still intends to recoup the money from the company, but it’s tangled in two lawsuits with Big League Dreams on related issues.
The park, near Elliot and Power roads, is home to several softball leagues and soccer teams, and also serves Little League tournaments.
Each field is a replica of a famous ballpark, like Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. The facility also features a restaurant, a 20,000-square-foot fieldhouse, batting cages and playground equipment. Big League Dreams operates 11 other ballparks with similar designs in California, Texas and Nevada.
About four years after the $40 million facility opened in 2008, the town discovered significant hazards.