Plans To Bring Minor League Baseball To Jackson Move Ahead
JACKSON, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - An idea to bring a minor league baseball team to the city of Jackson and build a stadium is moving forward.
Dan DuBois, who heads a 13-person organizing committee seeking to attract a Frontier League expansion team, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot that he's more optimistic about the potential for the project after the results of a survey.
"With that feedback, with our own research and analysis on the demographics for the county and certain other things, we were able draw some pretty good information as far as the likelihood of us being successful," he said.
The chief financial officer at RW Mercer Co. says response to the idea was mostly positive and the Jackson-area's demographics mirror those of five or six other teams in the league.
Experience Jackson, the visitors' bureau for Jackson County, is backing early studies on the project. The next step in the project will include looking at possible sites for the stadium. DuBois estimates the total cost of the project at $8 million to $12 million.
"Our initial thoughts are we really like downtown Jackson and there are a couple of sites in downtown Jackson which would seem to fit," DuBois said, "but the suggestion is let's make sure we consider some other sites."
DuBois says "Jackson is ready for something like this." If it's not baseball, he says minor league hockey or another minor league sport would be good prospects for the city.
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