City Will Get New Fields if the County Plays Ball

The city is negotiating a deal that would allow it to consolidate its 19 softball leagues, which now play at several locations, at a single site, officials said Monday.

Part of the county’s Ralph B. Clark Regional Park was being leased by Eagle Sports, a Virginia-based concern, but the company went bankrupt in October, leaving the county with an $8,500 water bill, said Todd Olsen, Fullerton’s director of adult sports leagues.

The city hopes to step into the gap, Olsen said, by using nine acres of the park for softball games that are now played at Valencia, Lemon and Woodcrest parks and at Cal State Fullerton.

“We’re all over the city right now,” Olsen said. “We’re hoping to work out a rent-free arrangement with the county.”

If the county allows the city to use the nine-acre portion of Clark park for softball, the city would make that the headquarters for its 19 leagues. The nine acres are north of Rosecrans Avenue between Euclid Street and Beach Boulevard; a larger part of the park lies south of Rosecrans.

Olsen said the cost to light and water the fields is estimated at $15,000 and $25,000 a year, respectively. If the city and county can agree on a deal, he said, money to maintain the park would come from league membership dues.