MWL1 Beloit Sky Carp

Feasibility Study Provides Positive Community Feedback

July 28, 2010 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Beloit Sky Carp News Release


The Beloit Professional Baseball Association's Board of Directors received encouraging feedback from this summer's Stadium Feasibility Study at their recent July board meeting. The objective of the study was to gauge the level of regional interest and support for a proposed year round multipurpose event facility and new home for Minor League Baseball in the Beloit Gateway Development area on Interstate 90.

The study, which focused on key individual interviews and an online survey, was conducted independently by a firm of consultants, The Abbey Group, Ltd., of Milwaukee, WI and Rapid City, SD. The Case Statement presented in the community survey received very strong impressions from both the personal interviewees as well as the online respondents according to Michael McNeely, a Principal with The Abbey Group. The survey results showed that over 75% of the participants ranked the building options and programs covered in the study favorably.

Specific impressions noted included the fact that building a stadium on a new site was ranked favorably by 78% of the respondents in the survey. Additionally, operating the stadium year round for uses other then baseball was ranked highly by over 85% of the individuals.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Martha Mitchell, member of the Stadium Feasibility Panel and past Executive Director of Visit Beloit, which funded a significant portion of the cost of the studies, said "I think the survey was a great indicator that people want to see our community have a new multi-use facility that would be utilized for various year round events including Snappers Baseball games. The Snappers currently draw about 60% of their fans from outside of the Beloit/Janesville area, so bringing in more visitors to our community would have a very positive economic impact on us.-

The Abbey Group's study also inquired about the individuals' attitudes toward the organization's desire to finance a portion of the project's cost with private donations through a general community campaign. This campaign would supplement a loan that would be debt serviced by the organization as well as other possible funding options. When asking whether a potential $10 million capital campaign goal was feasible, the study results indicated that about 66% felt that it was. When the question about a possible goal included a range of $5 to $10 million, 81% of those in the survey felt it was realistic.

The personal survey responses were received from a cross section of 80 selected community representatives in the greater state line area during the months of March and April while the online survey included 285 valid responses gathered during the month of May.

Check out the Beloit Sky Carp Statistics



Midwest League Stories from July 28, 2010


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central