Let's Celebrate 200 Years of History With 55 Years and 97 Years of History

evansville200.com

It's now been 200 years since Hugh McGary founded Evansville. Over these past 200 years, Evansville has seen many things come and go. But at the same time, many iconic landmarks still stand to remind Evansville of its rich history.

To commemorate Evansville's 200th birthday, our city is actually given what appears to be an honest effort at recognizing it, marketing it, and building off it (although I was pretty let down yesterday when the ECVB wouldn't give me a sticker simply because I wasn't a business). But like everything else our city leaders have attempted, they have quickly found themselves to be in an identity crisis once more due to their mixed messages.

You see, the same people who want us to believe that they are going all out to celebrate Evansville's 200th birthday are the same people who have made multiple attempts to demolish 55 years worth of our history at Roberts Stadium while neglecting 97 years worth of history at Bosse Field. Even worse is the fact that this has been going on for quite some time now and doesn't appear to be changing unless we the people demand it.

What pains me the most about our city turning a blind eye towards Roberts Stadium and Bosse Field is that both of these facilities have the potential and the capacity to bring in visitors by the thousands if we let them. Just like our 200th birthday celebration, we can leverage the history of these two facilities as both a regional and a national tourist draw. But to do this, we have to have city leaders willing to commit themselves to these two facilities.

I don't think there is a single person within a 100 miles radius of Evansville that isn't aware of Roberts Stadium. But on the flip side, I don't think there are more than a hundred people who understand the impact this facility has had on not just Evansville but the entire state of Indiana basketball.

Roberts Stadium is the largest arena constructed by local architect Ralph Legeman. Mr. Legeman holds the patent for the fieldhouse design. His work is celebrated in New Castle with the state of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame being located next to one of his gyms. His work is also celebrated in Indianapolis with the Indiana Pacers who play at Banker's Life Fieldhouse which pays tribute to the Indiana fieldhouse design.

The whole state of Indiana understands and respects the work that Ralph Legeman has done...except Evansville. Isn't it about time that changed? We have the potential to renovate Roberts Stadium back into a true fieldhouse by removing the precast sections above street level. We also have the potential to bring in high school and college basketball tournaments to commemorate Legeman's impact on the game of basketball. The only question is why. Why aren't we taking advantage of this?

And then there is Bosse Field, a facility that will turn 100 years old on June 17th, 2015. The amazing thing about Bosse Field is that we have been given Don Mattingly's youth baseball field, the site of the film "A League of Their Own," and 97 years of baseball history all in one area. And our city leaders don't want to take advantage of this?

If we build our ball field complex at Kleymeyer Park, it will be ready just in time for Bosse Field's 100th birthday. Could we have asked for a better situation? And if we build the fields to replicate vintage MLB ballparks, which simply consists of adding faux walls, we will bring national attention to this historic complex.

Another great thing about Bosse Field is that it opened with a parade that went from Sunset Park to Bosse Field. I have already approached the Otters about bringing this festival back. Indeed, there is a perfect niche for this festival. We do not have a spring version of the Fall Festival, we can increase sales for the Otters (especially if the ball fields are built in Kleymeyer), and we put the festival in Garvin Park where it will be out of the way of traffic.

I'm not asking for our city leaders to devout every minute of their day to these two facilities. In fact, I'm not even asking them to do anything out their regular routine. All I'm asking is for a chance, a chance to turn these two facilities into the enormous potential that they contain.

What better way for our city to save Roberts Stadium and bring Bosse Field back to life than to do it in the year of Evansville's 200th birthday. We can do this, we should do this, we MUST do this!

CourierPress.com