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Basing Hill Ballpark (Phase 1)

Herts Baseball Club By Herts Baseball Club

Level and resurface the damaged playing field with new grass to make it suitable for sport and develop it into a ballpark where kids and adults can play baseball and enjoy events in the park.

Barnet Delivery stage

51
backers
£21,690
raised
funded icon
This project was funded on 14 Aug 2021!

Herts Baseball Club was founded in 1996. To meet growing demand, the club built a second baseball field at its Hemel Hempstead branch in 2009. This led to a period of rapid growth. “We built it. People came. It’s time to do it again and bring baseball to NW London.” With so many kids and adults wanting to play baseball in NW London, the club decided to set up a branch there. Most playing fields were already taken by other sports. The only viable venue was Basing Hill Park but its playing field has deteriorated over many years. It was last used by football teams more than 10 years ago and the park cafe was abandoned. The field has been further damaged by local police using it to train their horses. Herts baseball teams started playing there in 2019. The club is now crowdfunding to make the playing field fit for purpose and bring baseball and softball into the heart of the community. The park will become a family oriented space with organised events for everyone.

What we'll deliver:

  • Level and resurface the playing field with new grass

Why it's a great idea:

Over the years the club has seen children and adults of all ages (6 to 60+), with diverse backgrounds, from low and high income families, male and female, from complete baseball beginners to advanced, join the club. Everyone plays. With so many of its club members living in NW London and many more wanting to play baseball but unable to travel to Hemel Hempstead, Herts Baseball Club established a branch in NW London. Over the last two years at Basing Hill Park, the club saw a large increase in enquiries from members of the public interested to play baseball. Growth in participation accelerated further after the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox came to play games at the London Stadium in 2019 in front of a 60,000 sell out crowd. That continued in 2020 and 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The community has rediscovered the important role which parks play in our lives. This project will make Basing Hill Park even better and will bring people together in a Covid-secure environment.

Steps to get it done:

  • August 2021: Cultivate, re-grade and level the playing field
  • September 2021: Plant grass seeds
  • October 2021: New grass appears
  • March 2022: First mowing of the new grass

Note: In July 2020 the UK government approved a Covid-secure protocol for baseball games to be played.

Location Barnet

About the space

Basing Hill Ballpark

Council

London Borough of Barnet

How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees)  £21,413

Levelling, re-grading and resurfacing of playing field with new grass - £20,754

Costs Breakdown

This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.

Levelling, re-grading and resurfacing of playing field with new grass
£20,754

Overfunding

This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:

  • Baseball Backstop
  • Infield cut-out clay areas around the bases and the pitcher's mound
  • Team benches

Target (inc. fees)  £21,413

Our Volunteer List

We're currently looking for people to offer skills and time to develop our project! Check out the list of what we need below and then use the 'Volunteer' button to the right to get involved.

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