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I have 12 acers in Lima, OH. I was thinking of building an indoor ballpark. I was woundering if anyone had an ideal what it might cost and how to go about finacing it? Or should I go in another direction? What does OFC Nation think?
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I think ur sitting on a gold mine
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Lots to consider........
Your background?
Do you have Business Partners?
Is the Land currently zoned for commercial? If not City or County leaders would have to re-zone. This can be impossible. (Start by finding this out, or all else is pointless)
Financing could be tricky in todays economy, unless you have some business background or some serious colateral.....
In order to get it financed, you have to have a good business plan. Basically, you would need to prove to John Q. Banker that this facility could support itself.... That means 365 day a year facility....
If you would be able to get financing, it would need to be enough for:
The facility....(Dome or steel building)
Land Improvements (Sewer, water, electiricty, gas)
Fixtures (Turf, Ligting, equipment to run the facility)
Staffing
Insurance (A must for finacning)
Compared to a Tennis Facility on Similiar Acreage just opened in Perrysburg.....
I would guess you will need about 1million......
$750k if you cut corners and limit the size of the facility to one diamond and indoor outdoor carpet..without heat......
Good Luck!
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Drive to the Ft Wayne Dome and check it out. If I was going to build a facility and had the money and you wanted to use it 12 months a year, that is what I would build.
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Agree with SB Family, doesn't hurt to have a facility with Multiple useages. (indoor driving range will help with income through the week)
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I agree with the Dome idea. Take a drive up to CSU on the weekend and watch the HS teams play. They Dome over the s o c c e r field and have two 200' fields with room for warm-ups and spectators. This will give you some great ideas of what you could improve on when doing it yourself.
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Nice picture. My wife's first comments were. What I'm not freezing and eating dirt, which was what she thought indoor softball was all about.. They have wedding and many parties at the Doom.
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The Ft. Wayne dome is top notch and in Lima it would be a Money Maker for sure.
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look into an air dome. less expensive and you can cut some of the politics out because its not a permanent structure.
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Wana make more money with it......... place it between dayton and cinci. count the teams between the 2 cities compared to lima and Indy only 2 hours out, cloumbus a little over an hour........... theres gold in them thar domes!!!!!!!!!
Tim
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I believe the Dome used to be a golfing facility where people drove balls off both levels.
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Fort Wayne is now owned by the bank. Went bankrupt. It is so hard to keep an indoor facility above water. There is a reason that there is not very many of them. The cost to keep them open is where you get killed. You can get dome and the 40 acres for a cool $1.5 million.
The cost to heat the FW dome in January = $20k.
I would take those 12 acres, put in 6 fields and host tournaments.
The cost to heat the FW dome in January = $20k.
I would take those 12 acres, put in 6 fields and host tournaments.
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not a bad idea...
If you do put in fields, pleeeaassee give us room to warm up in and put in fences from the get go and you may be onto something that would keep the interest very high.
Wonder if you got enough OFC'rs with hot air to fill that bad boy up with heat :lmao:. I'm sure if you feed'em brews and they'd heat your place for free. Oh yeah, walking taco's too but that would be an entirely different kind of heat ;&
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Boy how I miss the indoor facility that was 10 minutes from my house! But save your money...unless you have plenty...because they are money pits!!
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As I haved explored the cost this may not have been my best ideal but you never know what could fall into your lap. The land did!
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The insurance is also a killer ! I looked at buying and as Lady_Knights stated it is almost impossible to even break even, let alone make money.
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I think if you could get a liquor license (beer) in conjunction with some televisions so people will stay and spend money between games. Possibly work in some adult softball leagues / tournaments it could be a money maker. When I lived in Montana and played softball the concession stands sold beer and made a killing. I don't recall ever seeing anyone get drunk and out of hand either. Try and get Miller, AB, or Coors to help sponsor? Just a thought. Of course MT also had more bars than churches and more bars per capita than any other state at the time. Different culture for sure.
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The Doom had the Liquor License and a bar food area. .
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The Kingdom is an indoor basketball and So@@er plcae... they stay busy. I personally think they need to add softball to the mix for even more business. They also have an indoor play area and offer birthday parties there. If you could attach another business on the same land that made money during the weekdays. Maybe a daycare and offer some type of yoga or exercise classes for Mom and they can leave the kid for an hour or so in the daycare or take the classes before or after work. Just some thoughts. Good Luck if you do give it a shot.
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