The future of a proposed fully accessible baseball diamond in Chatham is uncertain following a major shake-up within the project’s fundraising committee.
The Board of Directors of the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame has announced that it will be transitioning out of its formal partnership with the Chatham Minor Baseball Association on the Dream Field Project.
The two organizations joined forces to form the Dream Field Steering Committee in 2023, and have been working with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent to bring a new regulation-sized, state-of-the-art baseball facility to the community.
The field would be the first accessible baseball diamond in Chatham-Kent to meet the needs of the Challenger baseball program.
Tom Baker, the board chair for the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame, said the budget for the project has ballooned from the original $750,000 estimate to approximately $4 million over the last two years.
“The project has moved beyond the scope of our organization’s financial and volunteer resources,” said Baker in a news release. “The scale of administration, accounting, and fundraising required for a project of this size now exceeds the capacity of a volunteer-run hall of fame.”
The board said it is committed to supporting a smooth transition, with the hope that the Dream Field Steering Committee is able to establish “a new, dedicated organization with its own charitable status.”
“This will give the Dream Field the focused leadership it requires while allowing [the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame] to return our resources to our core mission of celebrating and preserving Chatham-Kent’s sports heritage,” said Baker.
It is unclear at this time if the Chatham Minor Baseball Association will continue to operate the steering committee on its own and how fundraising efforts will be impacted.
Chatham-Kent Council threw its support behind the Dream Field project last year and gave the steering committee approval to raise funds for the capital costs of the project. The Kiwanis soccer field on Tweedsmuir Avenue was also selected as the location of choice for the proposed baseball diamond.
Most recently, on September 8, council voted in favour of obtaining a procurement package for the new field.
“This decision is not a withdrawal of belief in the Dream Field,” said Baker. “We remain supporters of its vision and are open to considering a future financial contribution once the fundraising campaign begins, should it align with our objectives at that time.”