Users of planned Hagerstown Field House offered chance to give input at Thursday meeting
A firm working with the city on development of an indoor sports facility will hold a meeting next Thursday to gather public input on possible uses for the complex.
Eastern Sports Management with Pinnacle Indoor Sports and Hughes Group Architects is inviting prospective users of the facility and other interested parties to the meeting, the city announced in a Facebook post.
The groups will present a plan for the complex at Thursday's meeting and collect input from the public on how it might want to use the facility, according to the announcement.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers at City Hall at Potomac and Franklin streets.
The announcement said the proposed Hagerstown Field House, which could cost between $10 million and $20 million, is anticipated to open in 2024.
The complex would be built at the Municipal Stadium property on East Memorial Boulevard.
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Hagerstown City Council members last month voted to enter into a $70,000 contract with Eastern Sports Management to develop drawings, a business plan and other details of the project. Council members also authorized city staff to prepare a contract to tear down Municipal Stadium to make way for the complex.
City officials have said there is a big demand for indoor sports and the facility is envisioned to have two turf fields, fitness areas, food and beverage offerings and possibly an outdoor field.
The project comes as a multi-use baseball stadium is also being pursued at Summit Avenue and West Antietam Street. No city funding will be used for that project.
The state legislature gave the Maryland Stadium Authority permission to allocate up to $59.5 million in bonds for design and construction of the 5,000-seat stadium. Maryland lottery proceeds will be used to pay debt service on the bonds.
Downtown Baseball LLC, a group of investors including Hagerstown businessmen Howard "Blackie" Bowen, Don Bowman and James Holzapfel, have a deal with the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball to bring a new team to Hagerstown.
The Hagerstown Suns, a minor league affiliate of the Washington Nationals that had played at Municipal Stadium, disbanded in Dec after Major League Baseball contracted the number of minor league teams.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Planned Hagerstown indoor sports facility subject of public meeting
