Mississippi University for Women has never had a baseball field to call its own, forcing the team to borrow diamonds across Columbus for home games. Now the city and the university are discussing a fix: converting four unused softball fields on the north side of Propst Park into a permanent, regulation home for MUW baseball.
The Columbus City Council is scheduled to take up the proposal at its Tuesday meeting at the municipal complex, according to The Dispatch. The arrangement would have the city borrow funds for the project, with MUW repaying the debt once it leases the finished facility, the paper reports. MUW's campus simply has no room to build its own field, a gap that has pushed the Owls to play home games at Columbus High School, Heritage Academy, and most recently Columbus Christian Academy, according to WCBI.
MUW athletic director Buddy Foster has pushed the idea as a win for both sides. The Dispatch reports Foster estimates a regulation field could generate $299,100 in annual economic impact for Columbus through hosted tournaments — a figure he says doesn't even count what traveling parents spend on hotels and meals while in town. Foster has also pointed to MUW's existing ties to the city, noting that university student-athletes logged more than 4,000 hours of community service with city entities last year, per the same report.
Why Columbus Christian Won't Cut It
The current workaround has real limits. Columbus Christian Academy's field isn't regulation size, which restricts which teams MUW can even invite to play there, The Dispatch notes. That's on top of a baseball program that has already cycled through multiple borrowed home fields, having partnered with Heritage Academy and Columbus High School in years past.
A regulation facility would change that math. The station's report notes a true NCAA-caliber diamond could let the Owls host tournaments and non-conference home games, pulling visiting teams and their fans into Columbus rather than sending the Owls elsewhere. Mayor Stephen Jones has framed the project in similar terms, telling WCBI the facility would finally give MUW a permanent home and make it easier for the city to attract other colleges to play there.
Two Versions of the Redevelopment Price Tag
City Engineer Kevin Stafford has floated a higher-cost preliminary plan for the north side of Propst Park, estimated at $5.4 million, which would include a baseball field, collegiate dugouts, batting cages, press boxes, a practice field, new restrooms and a concession stand, per The Dispatch. That plan would also update the one remaining softball field for city use once the other three are redeveloped. Stafford has said a leaner $2 million budget could instead cover dugouts, bullpens, field lighting and a scoreboard — a scaled-down option without the full collegiate amenities.
The north side of the park currently holds four unused softball fields alongside restroom and concession buildings described by The Dispatch as dilapidated. That stands in contrast to the park's west-side baseball fields, which are now turf, and its east-side youth softball fields — the product of an earlier swap.
Propst Park's Earlier Makeover, and Some Conflicting Numbers
This wouldn't be the first time Propst Park got reworked. In 2023, Columbus approved $4.4 million for citywide park improvements, with Propst Park receiving $3.4 million of that funding, according to The Dispatch. That earlier project swapped the locations of the park's baseball and softball fields. Separately, a Dispatch report on the council vote described the city borrowing $3 million through a 4-2 council vote, with an additional $1.4 million drawn from existing 2% tourism-tax funds, putting the total renovation cost at roughly $4.4 million; of that, about $3.4 million was earmarked for Propst Park, mostly to swap the youth baseball and softball fields rather than build entirely new ones. The city estimated the cost of issuing that $3 million in debt at $150,000 to $200,000, with interest payments projected around $1 million over ten years, per the same account.
A later WCBI update described the Propst Park work differently, calling it a $4 million project that includes new turf baseball fields, playground equipment, new gym flooring, lighting and paving. Whichever figure applies to which scope, the fieldwork itself has been visible: crews were working to convert the fields, with new fencing, backstops, infield turf and dugouts among the upgrades, according to WCBI's coverage of the construction. Relocating the baseball fields also let the city install turf, something that wasn't practical at the old site due to flooding concerns, The Dispatch reported.
The renovation was planned in four phases, with construction in its very first phase as the softball-to-baseball conversion took shape.
What a Deal Could Mean Going Forward
If the partnership moves ahead, MUW would contribute some of its own resources to help maintain the fields, WCBI reported, and the facility would also open the door for MUW athletics to host camps, clinics and summer tournaments beyond just varsity games, per The Dispatch. For now, the proposal sits before the city council, with Tuesday's meeting set to determine whether Columbus and MUW move from discussion to action on the Owls' long-sought home field.
