George Mason University’s leadership is playing defense after community concerns over a proposed baseball/cricket stadium on the currently underutilized, 190-acre western portion of the university’s Fairfax campus seem to have caught them by surprise.
In an open letter from Mason president Gregory Washington released Feb. 14, the university acknowledged that “a very clear set of concerns” have emerged in the wake of a Jan. 29 meeting that outlined the development proposal.
Increased traffic, environmental concerns and noise/light pollution topped the list.
“We look forward to sitting down with stakeholder groups to work through the expressed concerns together,” Washington wrote.
That was a far different take from the almost pep-rally atmosphere of the Jan. 29 online staff presentation, where plans were sketched out for a temporary stadium that would accommodate both the university’s baseball team and the Washington Freedom, a professional cricket team.
“This has the potential to be transformational,” Marvin Lewis, George Mason’s athletic director, said at that meeting, as reported by the GazetteLeader.
There was some foreshadowing at that meeting that the proposal might face headwinds.
Jackie Ferree, Mason’s senior vice president of operations and business services and the highest ranking university participant in the Jan. 29 meeting, acknowledged there were community concerns about adding facilities, and said the goal was “ensuring the least amount of disruption” to the lives of students, staff and neighbors.
The planned stadium that has been approved by Mason’s board of visitors is temporary in nature – a “smaller, simpler version of what a permanent stadium would be,” Washington said in his Feb. 14 letter.
“Nothing else is being proposed at this time,” he wrote.
The six-team Major League Cricket organization plays its matches in the summer months, with George Mason baseball needing field access in autumn and spring. The proposed facility would include fixed seats plus a low berm for additional seating, and would have VIP seating and hospitality facilities.
George Mason’s baseball team currently competes in the 900-seat Spuhler Field, which since its debut in the mid-1980s has seen only limited additional investment. Dugouts didn’t make an appearance until 2016, and there is no lighting or video board – which hamper recruiting efforts.
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For link to the proposal, including the Jan. 29 online town-hall meeting, see the Website at https://construction.gmu.edu/west-campus-planning.
