Baylor/Waco Foundation to Fund New Little League HQ
Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. yesterday announced a $175,000 campaign by the Baylor/Waco Foundation to help fund relocation of the Texas State Little League Headquarters to an expanded, 25-acre facility just south of the Baylor campus along University Parks Drive in Waco.
The new facilities will give the state organization the ability to attract to Waco regional Little League playoff games that have been played as far away as Florida. The current annual economic impact of the State Little League Headquarters on Waco is estimated at $1.8 million.
"I'm very excited about this year's Baylor/Waco Foundation project," Sloan said. "I believe it will have a significant and long-lasting economic impact on Waco while enhancing the city's visibility in the region and across the nation."
Relocation of the State Little League Headquarters will allow Baylor to expand the University's athletics facilities, including new or renovated facilities for tennis, soccer, baseball and softball. The State Little League Headquarters currently leases three acres of land on the Baylor campus along the Brazos River, near Ferrell Field, home of the Baylor baseball team.
Sloan said Bears' Athletic Director Tom Stanton and his staff envision a University Parks Drive athletics complex that will be the envy of the Big 12, and which will include men's and women's tennis, women's soccer, baseball, softball, men's and women's basketball and volleyball along a half-mile stretch from the Streich Tennis Center to the Ferrell Center.
"Community involvement was key to attracting the State Little League headquarters to Waco in 1971," said Sloan, who was inducted into the national Little League Hall of Excellence in 1996. "Through the Baylor/Waco Foundation, the citizens of Waco have the opportunity to further bolster Little League's contributions to the life of our city and our state, as well as undergird Baylor's participation in the Big 12."
Since 1959, the Baylor/Waco Foundation has served the Baylor and Waco communities by funding more than $4.6 million in expansion, construction, and renovation projects. Some of the projects that have been completed on land acquired with the assistance of the Baylor/Waco Foundation include the Baylor Marina, Ferrell Field, the W.R. Poage Legislative Library, the Ferrell Center, the Jesse H. Jones Library, Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center and the Glennis McCrary Music Building.