Softball, baseball leagues eager to play at the PAAC
Editor’s Note: This story is the last in a series taking an in-depth look at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex, which is scheduled to open Sept. 1.
Several sports organizations are eager to play at the new Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex, prompting a rash of bookings even before its Sept. 1 opening.
“The softball and baseball community, which makes up almost 5,000 youth, adults and senior participants, are very excited that they will soon be able to play at the PAAC,” Yuma Parks and Recreation Director Debbie Wendt said.
The grand opening will be celebrated with the 2017 USA Softball Men’s Western Class E Slow Pitch National Tournament.
The PAAC calendar already has 31 tournaments, 15 of them new tournaments that have been booked because of the new complex.
The type of tournaments scheduled include girls fast-pitch, boys baseball, men’s and women’s 12inch, 11-inch, 14-inch softball, senior tournament and co-rec tournaments.
The PAAC has youth baseball tournaments on the schedule too. A few of the organizations that are coming to town to host their tournaments at the PAAC are Xtreme Diamond Sports from San Diego, Calif., Top Choice Baseball from Phoenix and NSA Softball from Prescott.
The city will be relocating all of the adult leagues and tournaments to the PAAC. These include five seasons of men’s and women’s leagues and three seasons of co-rec softball leagues.
“Moving to the PAAC will allow us to grow and expand both leagues and tournaments,” Wendt said.
The PAAC has already scheduled two new cityrun tournaments: Cinco de Mayo and a senior softball tournament. The city’s long-term customers Border Madness and United Softball Association have already booked new tournaments at the PAAC.
“And our local youth cosponsored organizations are really excited to play at the PAAC and have future tournaments scheduled also,” she added.
“They will continue to practice and play their regular season games at the existing fields we have, but already have plans to play some games at the PAAC too.”
Before the PAAC, the only thing holding back the city from booking more tournaments had been the lack of fields. Due to Yuma’s ideal weather most of the year, the city had many requests for tournaments but had to turn them away, Oscar Chavez, a supervisor with Parks and Rec, told the council at a previous meeting.
The increase in tournaments has been the result of staff’s marketing efforts. “We’ve been working pretty hard to get the word out that this is the premier place to play,” Chavez said.
The city has had to compete for tournaments such as the USA National Championship.
“A number of factors go into us getting those, including the amount of hotel space we have available for the prospective weekend,” Wendt told the council.
“But we’re already getting feedback that having six fields in one location has been a factor in some of those decisions” to book Yuma, she added.
PAAC benefits include having six fields in one location rather than spread out across town and uniform field size.
Tournaments catering to college and senior teams, the military and Hispanics could all land in town because of the PAAC, Wendt said.
The PAAC will possibly be only the second sixfield complex in the entire state, alongside the Papago Park Baseball Facility in Phoenix.
Wendt said the “unique facility” will be able to bring in major tournaments — from T-ball-aged children through senior leagues — and will accommodate everybody in between.
She noted that tournaments already playing annually in Yuma, like the Cecil Fielder Winter World Series, are excited at the prospect of playing at the new fields.
“I am so proud that we’re able to bring this to the community,” said Wendt, adding that the idea of a multiplex is something that’s been in the works for at least two decades.
While the PAAC is built for softball, it will be equipped with portable pitching mounds that can be installed to host baseball tournaments. In particular, the PAAC is a good fit for youth league baseball events, Wendt said.
Older children, particularly from ages 16 on up, will continue to use the larger three fields at the Ray Kroc Sports Complex adjacent to Desert Sun Stadium, with their larger dimensions. Fences at the PAAC can be brought in, but otherwise max out at 325 feet.
Future of the PAAC
The city has four main goals for the PAAC:
— To provide a positive quality-of-life experience for community members — youth, adults and families.
— Promote the PAAC as a premiere athletic sports complex and a destination location for first-rate tournaments and sport events.
— Increase PAAC users by creating and sustaining an influx of facility users, both players and spectators, through newly developed programming strategies, tournaments and sports events.
— To create a positive economic impact to local businesses such as hotels, retail, restaurants and bars and an increased revenue collection of the city sales tax, 2 percent hospitality tax and rental opportunities. This increase will be due to the new youth and adult tournaments scheduled.
“The PAAC will bring many new visitors to Yuma that will eat, sleep and shop in our community,” Wendt noted.
And the city also believes that the neighboring businesses will also benefit economically. One of the reasons that the current site for the PAAC was chosen was the close proximity to Historic Downtown Yuma, Yuma Palms mall, restaurants and many hotels. All are within about 1 to 1 ½ mile radius from the complex.
“We will be working with local business for advertising opportunities to help promote the services and amenities they offer and to encourage our players to visit their establishments,” Wendt said.