Michigan-based General Sports & Entertainment yesterday broke ground on a new, privately funded, $12M ballpark in Utica, Mich., that is "owned by the Utica Downtown Development Authority and will be leased to General Sports and Entertainment for $1 per year under a 30-year pact that includes two 10-year options," according to a front-page piece by Sean Delaney of the MACOMB DAILY. The ballpark, called Jimmy John's Field, "will be home to three new teams that will play in a newly formed independent professional baseball league, the United Shore Professional Baseball League." It will seat "approximately 4,000 people and include a grandstand, five dugout suites, five penthouse suites, 12 private patio suites, a grass berm and four picnic areas." Construction "is expected to take 12 months and opening day of the league’s inaugural season will be next June" (MACOMB DAILY, 6/24). GSE Founder and former Pistons exec Andy Appleby said that both the Jimmy John's and United Shore naming-rights deals "are for 10 years." He added that the ballpark naming rights "are a joint deal with the Champaign, Ill.-based Jimmy John’s Franchise LLC and its franchisees." In Detroit, Bill Shea noted the deal "is the latest of several sports marketing relationships for the sandwich chain." GSE for several years owned the Single-A Midwest League Ft. Wayne TinCaps, and was "unsuccessful in an effort to build" an independent league ballpark in Troy, Mich., in the mid-'00s. The Utica project’s general contractor is Michigan-based Frank Rewold & Son Inc., and K.C.-based Pendulum is the architect (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 6/23).
