Efforts to bring a tournament-grade baseball/softball complex to Starkville “hit their stride” in summer 2019.
A referendum for an additional 1% tourism sales tax to fund it sailed through with 74% voter approval. Plans were in hand. All that stood in the way was building it, or so everyone thought.
By the August 2020 groundbreaking at Cornerstone Park off Highway 25 in west Starkville, the masks on most of the faces in attendance best evidenced the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed the project’s momentum. Subsequent supply chain issues and weather delays bogged down the project, meant to finish in 2022, even longer.
But Friday – more than three years and roughly $23 million after construction began – Starkville Parks Director Brandon Doherty summed up, quite simply, the collective mood of the 100 or so stakeholders facing him.
“The ribbon-cutting for Cornerstone Park is actually happening,” he said, as he took the microphone to open the long-awaited ceremony.
“It’s been a remarkable journey,” Mayor Lynn Spruill added during her remarks. “It’s been tough and we’ve pushed, but we made it through.”
The 12-field complex will serve as home to city recreational leagues during spring and summer, and it will be used on weekends to host tournaments, mostly for travel ball organizations. The city has contracted with Sports Facilities Management to operate all its parks, including Cornerstone.
Doherty, who directs Starkville parks for SFM, told The Dispatch he is working to finalize contracts for 20 tournaments over the next year, while also working to draw others.
Next weekend, Spruill said, a 60-team softball tournament will serve as Cornerstone’s first major event. Over the summer a couple of smaller tournaments served to “kick the tires” for the park while construction finished up, giving the city a chance to shore up any logistical deficiencies, she said.
Spruill said the 1.3-mile walking track Cornerstone will soon open to the public during certain hours, which the city still needs to determine. She is also hoping to host city events – Fourth of July fireworks, for example – and even concerts at the park.
The Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority donated the 124 acres for Cornerstone after efforts to turn the property into an industrial park “failed to materialize,” Spruill said. The sports tourism park built there instead is the largest project – by investment or size – the city has ever undertaken.
“I really believe this will be something that we’ll be proud of for generations to come,” Spruill said during the ceremony. “This is one of the first steps that say, ‘We can do anything we want to do, … and Starkville can be anything she wants to be.’”
Jason Clement, founder and CEO for SFM, noted his company works with more than 2,000 communities, but Cornerstone Park stands out.
“This complex is special. There isn’t another one like this, and it doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “This complex is going to improve the … physical health, spiritual health, metal health and social health of Starkville, and it’s going to contribute to the economic vitality of the city. … We are going to be good stewards financially of your resources.”
A few odds and ends remain to fully finish Cornerstone, though, be it vending machines, a walk-in freezer and cooling stations for umpires that will be installed at each of the park’s three field quads.
Only one “big” thing is still missing – a statue of Starkville native and Negro League baseball legend James “Cool Papa” Bell that will stand in the plaza at the front gate of the field complex. It was meant to be unveiled Friday, but the sculptor notified Spruill on Wednesday that he couldn’t make the timeline.
No matter. That just creates an opportunity for another event at the park.
“I figure what we’ll do is have another big party (for the unveiling),” Spruill said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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