Developing a Winner

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On June 2, the Lake Erie Crushers jogged through the gates of their new ballpark in Avon to a welcoming crowd on opening day. An expansion team in the Frontier League, an independent, Midwest-based baseball league with a level of play comparable to Class A Minor League ball, the Crushers are bringing professional baseball to Lorain County for the first time. In return, the team gains access to a newly built, $12 million baseball park with “all the amenities of a professional ballpark, just on a smaller scale,” according to Ron Landig, president of RWL Architects, Inc., which designed the field with assistance from OSports, a division of Osborne Engineering that specializes in sports facility planning.

“The City of Avon invested in a well designed, well built facility,” says Christopher Wynn, director of design at OSports. “It’s a substantial ballpark, but it’s also extremely intimate, which is rare in professional sports, so that you can really be right on top of the action.”

Built with Infinity Construction acting as general contractor, All Pro Freight Stadium is a state-of-the-art facility with accommodations for 5,000 visitors, including loges, box seats and even lawn seating, as well as a pair of concession stands, a party deck and a team shop. Utilizing artificial turf, the baseball field is engineered to provide efficient drainage and low maintenance costs, while providing a comfortable playing surface.

“We’re very excited about the new ballpark,” says Paul Siegwarth, assistant general manager, operations with the Lake Erie Crushers (who previously held a similar position with Cleveland Indians Single A affiliate Lake County Captains). “It’s an impressive achievement. When we brought the ballplayers onto the field for the first time, it was like seeing kids at Christmas. Their eyes get wide and ‘wow’ is the first word that comes out of their mouths. It’s the same for the fans too.”

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