Hammons Looks for Team to Play in New Stadium

Hotel mogul John Q. Hammons, who has two hotels in Northwest Arkansas, is building a $20 million baseball stadium in Springfield, Mo., with hopes of landing a minor league Double-A affiliate in that city, where his business is headquartered.

A native of Joplin, Mo., Hammons’ publicly traded John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc. has hotels in 22 states, including the Holiday Inn Northwest Arkansas in Springdale and the future Embassy Suites in Rogers. Other hotels Hammons manages include Renaissance, Radisson and Marriott. He is considered to be the leading independent manager of hotel meeting space in the country, with almost 2 million SF of meeting and convention space under management.

The Texas League is the most likely choice to put an affiliate in Springfield. Although there has been speculation that Hammons may be trying to attract the St. Louis Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate in New Haven, Conn., where the Ravens play in the Eastern League. New Haven’s attendance figures are well down this year.

Hammons Field will be open March 1, 2004, and will be located at Springfield’s Jordan Valley Park. It will hold about 8,000 fans with room for 2,000 more in outfield berm areas. There will also be 28 upper deck luxury boxes. It will have an indoor batting facility.

The stadium will have two home teams, the minor league franchise and Southwest Missouri State University.