Twenty-Eight Court Hardball Complex Reportedly To Open In Rohnert Park, California, McManus Set To Launch PHT
by Andrew Weeding, special to DailySquashReport.com
April 1, 2012 - Baker Lane Financial Group of Sebastopol, California, today announced plans to construct a 28-court "hardball only" complex on the site of the old Sonoma County Crushers minor league baseball stadium in Rohnert Park.
The 170,000 square-foot facility, to be called Analy Racquet and Sport, is slated to open on April 1st, 2013.
Rohnert Park is 55 miles north of San Francisco.
The complex will reportedly also include a state-of-the-art mixed martial arts weight loss center.
BLF spokesman Craig LaRue said that his group had been considering the Crusher Stadium property as a potential development site since 2005, when the 4,100-seat Redwood Independent League ballpark was razed.
"Initially we considered a Florida-style condominium complex," said LaRue. "But ultimately, we are confident that resurrecting the game of hardball singles squash represents the wisest placement of our money and makes for the best possible use of this parcel."
Hardball courts are 18 1/2 feet wide, as compared to the 21-foot wide softball court, universally accepted as the world standard.
LaRue said he has already been contacted by Joe McManus of the Pro Squash Tour.
"He's considering Analy Racquet and Sport for a tour stop next year," said LaRue. "He also wanted to know what "let" rule will be in effect in hardball."
"At present, we feature the PST and the recently launched PDT (Pro Doubles Tour)," said McManus, from the Providence Open (PO) at Brown University in Rhode Island. "Due to the positive hardball infrastructure now in place thanks to Analy Racquet, we will be launching the PHT (Pro Hardball Tour) next week."
"We'd prefer, for clarity, to call this one PHBT," McManus continued, "but you read the half-point news story, didn't you? We need to limit all of our squash bodies to three-letter acronyms."
The last hardball court constructed in the US was reportedly installed in the Executive Boulevard business park in Yonkers, New York, in 1994, currently the site of a Red Robin restaurant.
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