BusinessTN

More and more, colleges and universities across America are building expensive new baseball parks on their campuses. Why all the bricks and mortar? The parks are specifically intended for joint use by collegiate squads and paying tenants in the form of minor league baseball teams seeking spiffy new homes.

Tusculum College in Greeneville—Tennessee’s oldest school and 28th oldest in the nation—is among the trendsetters. Last month, the private Presbyterian liberal arts school finalized construction on a $5 million, 2,400-seat stadium called Pioneer Park. But even before construction was complete, the ballpark had become home of the Appalachian League rookie squad of the Houston Astros professional baseball club. From June through September of 2004, recently drafted Astros prospects played a 34-game home schedule at Pioneer Park, ending the year as league champions. During the spring and fall, the park is home of the Tusculum College Pioneers, currently a top 10 Division II team.

The trend toward joint-use stadiums is a “win-win” proposition, says Greeneville Astros general manager Lynsi House. For the team, which signed a six-year lease, Pioneer Park provides the best facility in the Appalachian League in which to groom talent. Field lighting is on a par with Triple-A stadiums. Amenities include covered seating, built-in concession stands, clubhouses and a brick-and-limestone facade reminiscent of a 1930s-era ballpark. In quality, the facility rivals stadiums at higher classifications of professional baseball. As an added bonus, Astros players took up residence in vacant Tusculum College dormitories last summer.

From Tusculum’s perspective, in addition to having a paying tenant, having one of the best NCAA Division II facilities in the country serves as a recruiting magnet for many high school athletes not talented enough to play at the Division I level but who wish to continue their playing careers. Since the college offers, at best, modest scholarships to most of its athletes, that translates into substantial new tuition revenue for the school. The college’s 2005 baseball roster boasts 49 students.

It’s not the first time Tusculum has used sports to boost its enrollment. Back in the early 1990s, Tusculum’s enrollment dropped below 400. Today, its enrollment tops 1,000. The spike is due in no small part to its reinvigorated athletic programs. Currently, the school offers 14 sports. Last year, 175 students tried out for the football team alone. Student athletes who choose to attend Tusculum enjoy an athletic complex with facilities uncommonly good for a Division II school. They all were built or renovated in recent years with financial gifts from Greeneville businessman, multi-millionaire, Tusculum graduate and trustee Scott Niswonger, founder of Forward Air. Niswonger’s latest $5 million donation supplied the complex with its cornerstone, Pioneer Park.

G.M. House’s “win-win” scenario appears to be on the money. But arguably it’s the Greene County community as a whole that has benefited the most from construction of the baseball stadium. For a decade, community leaders tried to entice a minor league team to their town, which had lacked one since the Burley Cubs left in the 1940s. Through the construction of Pioneer Park, America’s national pastime and a welcome family entertainment option were finally successfully recruited to Tennessee’s sixth largest county—and without the cost normally associated with public construction of a ballpark.

The community’s response has been impressive. In its first year in Greeneville after relocating from Martinsville, Va., the Astros drew over 50,000 fans—an average 1,600 per game—to Pioneer Park, 20,000 more than any other team in its league.