HENRICO, Va. (WWBT)—Henrico is building a new NCAA-regulation baseball complex at Glover Park in Glen Allen, hoping to attract college tournaments and attract more of those coveted sports tourism dollars.
Construction began last summer and is still underway.
“The total development is about 80 acres of the 200-acre site,” Henrico County Director of Recreation and Parks John Zannino said.
The new amenities include the largest dog park in the county—just shy of 3 acres—complete with natural grass, a large playground with exercise equipment, a misting pole plaza and miles of nature trails.
“The other 120 acres is being preserved. Most of that is on the northern side of the site. We have some wetlands and some natural areas. That’s largely where the 3.1-mile trail system will be,” Zannino said.
But perhaps the main attraction will be a new sports complex.
The county is building two new multipurpose fields to bring the total to six.
Six new diamond baseball fields with stadium seating will be built as part of a public-private partnership with Prep Baseball Report.
“So that was an idea that came out of the board member Mr. Schmitt, really trying to create a sports tourism destination on the East Coast,” Zannino said. “It’ll be one of the only diamond complexes. You’d have to go all the way down to Atlanta to get to another complex similar, to have six full-size diamond fields synthetic in one complex.”
Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority Executive Director Dennis Bickmeier says the stadium adds a new, different element and feel to the Glen Allen complex.
“I like to tell people, if you’ve been to a spring training facility in Florida or Arizona, it’s going to have that kind of feel too. So, again, makes us really unique here in the Mid-Atlantic,” Bickmeier said.
Sports tourism continues to be a huge focus and boon for Henrico.
The Virginia Tourism Corporation reported visitor spending in the county topped $1.9 billion last year, the fifth highest in the state.
To quote the film Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”
The county anticipates that will be true at Glover Park.
“We have about 400 spaces now, and we’re adding about 1500 parking spaces to be able to accommodate both the diamond complex and the multi complex,” Zannino said.
Zannino said the goal is to open some of the new amenities, like the dog park and trails, before the end of 2025, and the baseball complex should be completed by spring of 2026.
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