A compromise was worked out on the request for advertising banners at the Junior League Baseball Fields during Monday evening’s Park Board Meeting. This issue was tabled from the February meeting.
Last month Ryan Carroll from the Junior League Baseball program asked for permission to hang advertising banners at a couple of the ball parks as a way to increase revenues without increasing the cost to participants. There was some apprehension by park board members fearing they may be opening a can of worms by allowing the banners. There was also concern on the esthetics for the park.
Monday evening Laura Mann, park board member suggested a sponsor board at the diamonds similar to the one approved for Nixon Field in their February meeting. She said, “What about creating a sponsor board that would mimic that board so there would be consistency between all the different fields?”
Carroll was open to the idea but had concern that there wasn’t a location for a sponsor board of similar size and most of the parks. With it being smaller he said they would have to find more sponsors create the additional funding needed. Carroll told the park board “We’re also not opposed to going the banner route and taking them down after each game and putting them in the storage area so they are not out all the time.”
Park Board president Dave Morrow said, “Personally l would like to see a sponsor board compared to banners. I think we would just open up a can of worms that would make this board’s decisions in the future very difficult with other groups that would want to do promotional banners.” He continued, “I think one of the beautiful things about our park is the esthetic value of it and I’m not sure banners would really do that any favors.”
The park board unanimously approved a motion to permit a sponsor sign board at each of the junior league baseball diamonds in the park for the 2017 season.
