Local News

Prospect Meadows gets highly favorable report

The Prospect Meadows Ball Fields project in Linn County has taken a big step forward.

A feasibility study demonstrates strong support for the project, which would include 17 fields on 112 acres near the junction of County Home Road and Highway 13 north of Marion.

Approximately 80 percent of the people who participated in the study were "very impressed" and "very supportive" of the project, according to Richard Bice, the vice president of the non-profit group that wants to build the complex.

Approximately 75 percent of the people in the study think the project would have a "very definite" financial benefit to the community, and 70 percent liked the location of the fields.

"The highlight of the whole thing is that everybody thought it would be good for the community, and everybody also thought it's something that would be appreciated in the generations to come," Bice told the Metro Sports Report Thursday morning. "Those percentages are up there pretty high.

"For these times, it was an extremely favorable result," he said. "We were very pleased with the acceptance in the community. It worked out very, very well."

Bice said 50 business people and community leaders were interviewed for the feasibility study, which cost $20,000 and was financed by the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

The board of directors of Prospect Meadows, Inc., met Wednesday to discuss the feasibility study and was scheduled to meet again Thursday to plan their next steps. One of those steps will be to make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors, perhaps this month.

"One of the top priorities on our list will be to come to an agreement with the board of supervisors," Bice said.

All five members of the Board of Supervisors signed a letter that states the board "strongly supports" the project. The letter, dated March 2, 2011, declared "As the project moves forward, Linn County is likely to consider a donation of land" for Prospect Meadows.

Prospect Meadows, Inc., is a non-profit 501 (c)(3). There are 10 members on the Board of Directors and Jack Roeder, the former general manager of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, serves as general manager for the project.

The project would include eight regulation-size baseball fields, eight smaller fields and a Miracle Field for people with disabilities. There also would be parking, flower gardens, a supervised play area, trails, concession buildings, restrooms, a storm shelter, lighting, a sound system, scoreboards, seating areas and a pond.

The estimated cost of building the project is $8.6 million. The board of directors for Prospect Meadows, Inc., is hoping to raise $4.2 million in donations.

If all goes according to plan, Prospect Meadows would open in 2013 and would operate from April 1 through November 1.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Metro Sports Report president Jim Ecker and MSR vice president Mike Koolbeck participated in the feasibility study).

First-round home dates for 4 Metro 4A teams

We nailed 'em.

The pairings were released for the Class 4A baseball tournament Tuesday and they were just as we predicted.

Kennedy will host Jefferson, Xavier entertains Dubuque Senior, Waterloo West is at Prairie and Cedar Falls travels to Linn-Mar for Class 4A first round subtstate tournament games Friday, July 15.  Washington will play at Iowa City West, which returns most of its team from last year's state runner-up squad.

Kennedy is the defending state champion and is ranked seventh in the state by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association. The Cougars have beaten Jefferson twice, so far, with a third game on tap Tuesday night at Kennedy.

Xavier, ranked No. 9, split its two games with Senior last Friday at Dubuque.

Prairie split its doubleheader with Waterloo West in mid-June. Linn-Mar, meanwhile, lost twice last week at Cedar Falls. Washington also dropped both ends of its doubleheader at Iowa City West last month.

Kennedy is seeded No. 1 in Substate 3. If the Cougars beat the J-Hawks they will get a bye into the substate final, which they would host, on July 20. Xavier is seeded No. 2 in this substate, Dubuque Hempstead No. 3,, Western Dubuque No. 4, Dubuque Senior No. 5 and Jefferson No. 6.

Prairie is the No. 2 seed in Substate 2 and Linn-Mar is No. 3. Top-ranked Mason City is No. 1, Cedar Falls No. 4, Waterloo West No. 5 and Waterloo East No. 6.

Iowa City West is top-seeded in Substate 5 and Washington is No. 6. North Scott is No. 2, Iowa City High No. 3, Muscatine No. 4 and Burlington No. 5.

All first-round games in Class 4A are scheduled for July 15. The semifinals are July 18 and finals July 20.

The Class 4A state tournament is July 27, 29-30 at Principal Park in Des Moines.

CLASS 4A SUBSTATE PAIRINGS

SUBSTATE #2
#1 Mason City vs. #6 Waterloo, East at Mason City, 7 p.m.
#2 Prairie, Cedar Rapids vs. #5 Waterloo, West at Prairie, Cedar Rapids, 7 p.m.
#3 Linn-Mar vs. #4 Cedar Falls at Linn-Mar, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #3
#1 Cedar Rapids, Kennedy vs. #6 Cedar Rapids, Jefferson at Kennedy, 7 p.m.
#2 Xavier, Cedar Rapids vs. #5 Dubuque, Senior at Xavier, 7 p.m.
#3 Dubuque, Hempstead vs. #4 Epworth, Western Dubuque at Dubuque, Hempstead (Petrakis Park), 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #5
#1 Iowa City, West vs. #6 Cedar Rapids, Washington at Iowa City, West, 7 p.m.
#2 North Scott, Eldridge vs. #5 Burlington at North Scott, Eldridge, 7 p.m.
#3 Iowa City, City vs. #4 Muscatine at Iowa City, City, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #1
#1 Sioux City, East vs. #6 Sioux City, West at Sioux City, East, 5 p.m.
#2 Fort Dodge vs. #5 Ames at Fort Dodge (Harlan Rogers Park), 7 p.m.
#3 Urbandale vs. #4 Sioux City, North at Urbandale, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #4
#1 Pleasant Valley vs. #6 Bettendorf at Pleasant Valley, 5 p.m.
#2 Davenport, Central vs. #5 Davenport, West at Davenport, Central, 7 p.m.
#3 Davenport, North vs. #4 Clinton at Davenport, North, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #6
#1 Southeast Polk vs. #6 Des Moines, Lincoln at Southeast Polk, 7 p.m.
#2 Ankeny vs. #5 Des Moines, Hoover at Ankeny, 7 p.m.
#3 Marshalltown vs. #4 Newton at Marshalltown, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #7
#1 Dowling Catholic, WDM vs. #6 Des Moines, North at Dowling Catholic, WDM, 7 p.m.
#2 Lewis Central vs. #5 Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson at Lewis Central, 7 p.m.
#3 Waukee vs. #4 Council Bluffs, Abraham Lincoln at Waukee, 7 p.m.

SUBSTATE #8
#1 Des Moines, Roosevelt vs. #6 Indianola at Des Moines, Hoover, 7 p.m.
#2 Valley, WDM vs. #5 Des Moines, East at Valley, WDM, 7 p.m.
#3 Ottumwa vs. #4 Johnston at Ottumwa, 7 p.m.

KGYM launching new 3-hour talk show Tuesday

Rob Norton believes strongly in local programming on his radio stations in Cedar Rapids. Now he's taking a bold new step to prove it.

Starting this Tuesday, KGYM will feature a three-hour talk show with sports journalists Brent Balbinot and Todd Brommelkamp that will run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The show will focus heavily on the Iowa Hawkeyes, but also plans to feature Iowa State, Northern Iowa, high school sports, the local scene and topics of national interest.

Norton is the president of KGYM (ESPN 1600) and KZIA (Z 102.9), the locally owned stations that are housed in southwest Cedar Rapids. The additional hours of sports talk is his idea and he's confident the community reaction will be favorable.

"I think it will be good, or I wouldn't have done it," he said Thursday.

The Dan Patrick Show, which has been running on KGYM from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the week, will be broadcast from noon until 3 p.m. starting this Tuesday. The Scott Van Pelt Show, which has been running from noon to 2 p.m., will be bumped to make room for Patrick.

As part of the new schedule, the Gym Class featuring Scott Unash and Mark Dukes will be broadcast from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., giving KGYM four straight hours of local sports talk. The Gym Class has been running from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

"That's going to be four solid hours of local sports programming, and that's unheard of in this market," said Brommelkamp. "It's something that has been a long time coming, and I think people are really going to take to it."

Brommelkamp, 31, will continue to serve as editor/general manager of the Voice of the Hawkeyes website and magazine. Balbinot, 43, will continue as the play-by-play voice of the UI women's basketball team and baseball team for the Learfield radio network.

Brommelkamp and Balbinot both attended the University of Iowa and have been covering Hawkeye sports since their college days. Norton likes their experience, expertise and personality.

"I consider Balbinot the radio host," Norton deadpanned, "and Brommelkamp the goofy sidekick."

JoAnn Hamlin, a former UI basketball player, also will be a member of the Balbinot and Brommelkamp show, serving as producer, screening calls and offering comments.

Norton wants the show to be fun, but also wants Balbinot and Brommelkamp to pursue serious topics and has given them permission to criticize the Hawkeyes when warranted.

"We can be critical," Norton said. "I don't want to be critical, and if we are going to be critical, it better be right on the mark and correct, and not a theory.

"I'm a Hawkeye," Norton said. "I like the Hawks as much as anyone. I don't want to be critical of them, but if it needs to happen, it happens.

"I don't want to hide it, either, and I don't want to be just a cheerleader like you have to be in the Learfield group (the company that owns the radio rights to Iowa games). So I think it can be a lot more objective than the other stations."

Brommelkamp said KGYM wants the show to be "a little bit serious, and a little bit irreverent."

"It's not always going to be sunshine and rainbows with the Hawkeyes, the Cyclones, the Panthers," he said. "We welcome both sides of the argument.

"We're looking forward to spirited involvement with the listeners. If they listen and disagree, we want them to pick up the phone and share their opinion with us.

"If something controversial happens, we're not going to sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen. When something happens, we're going to talk about it."

Balbinot and Brommelkamp will feature guests, interviews, commentary and clips from press conferences, and the hosts will encourage phone calls from their listeners.

"We're hoping that the things we talk about will resonate with listeners and that they will pick up the phone and call in, or tweet or interact with us on facebook," Brommelkamp said. "We really want to make this show as much about the listeners as it is ourselves and the guests."

Balbinot was the sports director at KXIC in Iowa City for 10 years, but Clear Channel (the parent company) cut his job this past March, a victim of budget cuts. "I never saw it coming," he said.

Balbinot pursued other jobs, but nothing materialized until he was contacted by KGYM. "In all honesty, I was thinking I was probably going to get out of the industry, at least full-time," he said.

Now he's excited about tackling a new opportunity and fulfilling the trust of his new bosses at KGYM.

"I feel extremely fortunate, extremely blessed," he said. "And like I said, very motivated to make sure that several years from now they think it was a good idea to make that phone call."

Norton thinks Balbinot and Brommelkamp are the perfect on-air personalities to cover the Hawkeyes and handle the other topics of local interest. They both live in Johnson County and are veterans at UI sports events.

"They're local, and they're local, and they're local," Norton said. "I think local shows sell people. I think local shows do better in ratings, per se, although we're not a ratings-driven company by any imagination."

Norton wanted to expand what KGYM covers, and he especially wanted to expand coverage of the Hawkeyes. Research shows that the Hawkeyes are the favorite team in the area, college or pro.

"The Hawks are the No.1 deal, and we don't do a good enough job covering it," he said. "We're very good with high school sports. That's Unash's wheelhouse. We're not good with the Hawkeyes. We're very bad with the Hawkeyes."

Unash, the sports director at KGYM, specializes in covering high school sports and has won numerous broadcasting awards.

Norton wants the Balbinot and Brommelkamp show to be entertaining and informative. "I would like it a little bit faster-paced, a little bit more arrogant, a little bit goofy, a little bit more pzazz to it to match the network (ESPN) a little bit more," he said.

KGYM is a member of the ESPN network, but Norton said his station has the right to pick and choose which ESPN shows to run and which shows to preempt. Dan Patrick formerly worked for ESPN, but he left the network and his show is not part of the ESPN lineup anymore. Norton purchased the rights to the Patrick show separately.

Norton does not consider the Balbinot and Brommelkamp show a gamble.

"It's what we do," he said. "We try to build the business the old-fashioned way: Have a product. Our goal to make money is to build a product as best we can and charge money for it.

"Other operations in this country seem to think the way to profitability is just to cut, cut, cut. We go the other way. We build, build, build and charge more for it - charge what's appropriate for it."

Balbinot has seen the other side of the business and appreciates Norton's approach. "What he's doing - what this place is doing - it's basically unheard of right now in the industy, especially with corporate ownership," Balbinot said.

Norton said this is not an experiment. "No. It's a permanent thing," he declared. "I know it will work."

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Metro Sports Report co-owners Mike Koolbeck and Jim Ecker have a daily two-minute show on KGYM and have a business relationship with the radio station).

Metro soccer players shine in all-star game

URBANDALE - Matt Peak, Michael Tessmer and Zach Smith scored goals Saturday night as the East team defeated the West, 4-0, in the Iowa High School All-Star soccer game.

Nate Even from Xavier High School was the goalkeeper for the East squad and posted the shutout.

Nine players from the Metro area participated in the game. They included Peak (Kennedy), Tessmer (Xavier), Smith (Xavier), Even (Xavier) Brandon Besong (Washington), Nick Bruns (Kennedy), Tim Bouchard (Xavier), Camron Harison (Washington) and Braxton Lancial (Linn-Mar).

The game was sponsored by the Iowa High School Socceer Coaches Association.