Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Northeast, Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.
The academy will be developed in two phases in the nearby 21-acre Parade Park, which is bounded by 18th Street, Truman Road, The Paseo and Woodland Avenue.
Its $6.5 million first phase will include two full-size baseball diamonds, two youth fields, basketball and tennis courts, a walking/jogging path, and other improvements. The $7.5 million second phase will include a 3,500-square-foot indoor training facility, a Great Lawn special-events area linking that facility with the Negro Leagues museum, lighting for the first-phase fields, a playground and parking areas.
The mayor credited Moore as the driving force behind the academy, which already has attracted enough donations to finance the first phase.
The first phase of the project is scheduled to open by fall 2016. Construction of the second phase will commence upon completion of a capital campaign.
"Through a partnership of Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, the Royals and the city," James added, "we will use professional baseball instruction as a vehicle to provide urban youth with educational and career opportunities while simultaneously bringing attention to important community institutions like the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Black Archives, the Parade Park neighborhood and the 18th and Vine area."
