Jimmy John's Field is a

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

Utica, Michigan Utica is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,757 at the 2010 census. History The city now known as Utica was platted by Joseph Stead in 1817, who preferred to call it "Harlow." Others referred to the cit ...

, home to four teams that play in the

United Shore Professional Baseball League The United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL) is an independent baseball league in suburban Metro Detroit, Michigan, United States, started in May 2016. Each team in the USPBL plays a 42-game regular season schedule from May through Septem ...

(USPBL), an independent baseball league. It opened on May 30, 2016. Naming rights were purchased by

Jimmy John's Jimmy John's is an American sandwich chain headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The business was founded by Jimmy John Liautaud in 1983. After Liautaud graduated from high school, his father gave him a choice to either join the military or star ...

, a sandwich restaurant chain.

History

The ballpark is located in downtown Utica, just over twenty miles north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. Jimmy John's Field is owned by General Sports Entertainment (GSE); however, Utica's Downtown Development Authority will own the land it sits on and lease it to them for $1 per year for 30 years. The property was the site of a capped brownfield landfill that served as an unlicensed dump for household waste, that sat vacant the last 80 years. General Sports created the USPBL. The USPBL is the first independent professional baseball league in the metropolitan Detroit area. Construction began in June 2015 and the venue opened on May 30, 2016. The cost of the field was $15 million. In the park's first season it served all three teams as their home field, averaging 3,200 fans per game with over 200,000 fans total. Since its second season, it has also served as the home field for the Westside Woolly Mammoths. The field served as the home of the NAIA Marygrove College Mustangs baseball team until athletics were dropped in December 2017. In addition, the park hosted an NCAA game in April 2017. The field now serves as the home of the NAIA Lawrence Technological University Blue Devils.

Venue

The stadium has a total capacity of 4,500 fans, with 2,000 box seats between first and third base. It features 7 founder's level suites, 5 dugout suites, 12 patio suites, 4 picnic areas, and a grass

berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/ separation ...

. The ballpark also features a restaurant and bar on the concourse behind home plate. In the right field corner there is a

wiffle ball Wiffle ball, a team sport developed in 1953 in Fairfield, Connecticut, is a scaled back variation of baseball designed for playing in a confined space. The sport is played using a perforated light-weight plastic ball and a long hollow plastic b ...

field and a playground. The field has extremely wide foul territories, and a concert quality speaker system, allowing it to host other sports and events in the future. Before the USPBL's second season, the stadium added 3 new bars, a concert stage in right field, and many new menu items.

Awards

In September 2016, Jimmy John's Field won the CREW Detroit Impact Award in the special impact award category for its transformation of landfill parcels along the

Clinton River The Clinton River is a river in southeastern Michigan in the United States. It is named in honor of DeWitt Clinton, who was governor of New York from 1817 to 1823. The main branch of the river rises from wetlands and coldwater tributaries from ...

. In March 2017, the stadium project won the Engineering Eminent Conceptor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan.

References

External links

United Shore Professional Baseball League Official Website

General Sports Entertainment Official Website
{{coord, 42.6260, N, 83.0402, W, source:wikidata, display=title Baseball venues in Michigan Buildings and structures in Macomb County, Michigan 2016 establishments in Michigan Sports venues completed in 2016 College baseball venues in the United States