Prospect Meadows wants to ‘Enhance the Experience’

Prospect Meadows was built to give baseball and softball players a new state-of-the-art facility to improve their skills and play the game they love.

It also was built to give fans and spectators an inviting place to support their favorite players and enjoy the visit themselves. That’s why Prospect Meadows has launched a new effort to “Enhance the Experience” for all their guests.

The new fundraising campaign for the general public began Monday, March 2 and can be found by going to CrowdFund.ProspectMeadows.com.

Prospect Meadows opened for business in late May of 2019 with eight regulation baseball fields. Quite frankly, it was a scramble to open on time following a wet spring that made it harder to get grass seed in the ground to grow the outfield grass and to finish the construction.

Financial resources were earmarked for the fields, so some of the spectator amenities had to wait for a while.

“The first phase was to make sure the players had the best experience they possibly could,” Prospect Meadows general manager Steve James explained. “There’s a point where you run out of money in your construction budget. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get everything we wanted right out of the gate.”

Now the wait is ending with an eye on the spectators. The goal is to raise $250,000 from the “Enhance the Experience” campaign.

“We want to raise money to help enhance the fan experience to make sure when they come out here, the fan has a great time,” James said.

New indoor restroom facilities at the main entrance building at Prospect Meadows are scheduled for completion in the next couple weeks.  Depending on how much money is raised, they’d like to add other fan amenities such as a public address system, more protective netting, and more bleachers.

It’s easy to make a contribution. Simply connect to CrowdFund.ProspectMeadows.com, click on Donate Today and make a contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or $500. Any amount would be welcome, no matter how big or small.

Prospect Meadows is still looking for more sponsors for “naming rights” to different parts of the complex, but this new fundraising campaign is aimed at fans and people who’d like to support baseball and softball in the community.

“It’s more of a grass-roots campaign,” James remarked. “If you have five bucks that you can donate, we’d appreciate it.  It all adds up.”

People also can send a check by mail to Prospect Meadows, 1890 County Home Road, Marion, Iowa, 52302.

Anyone who donates will get their name on the Donor Wall on the Prospect Meadows website (Prospect Meadows.com). Prospect Meadows is a 501c3 non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.

There are Perfect Game spring league games and Upper Iowa University baseball games planned at Prospect Meadows this weekend (March 7-8) to take advantage of the early spring weather. That’s approximately 2 1/2 months earlier than last year.