Pullman Park prepared for baseball season, events hosting
After months of work repairing and upgrading Historic Pullman Park, the Butler Area School District is finally ready to play ball at the facility.
Golden Tornado baseball is expected to open the season against Knoch School District at 3:30 p.m. It will be the team’s first official game of its season and the first season with the park under district management.
Work on the park is only partially complete at this point, Superintendent Brian White said Friday. More work is planned after the season, and there are concepts for long-term improvements to the facility.
Conversations about the park’s direction first arose between the City of Butler and Butler Area School District in fall 2024 after members of the volunteer-based City of Butler Parks, Recreation, Grounds and Facilities Authority requested city council cosign a $400,000 loan for repairs.
Mayor Bob Dandoy told the Butler Eagle in April 2025 operations seemed to be “a little bit too much” for the volunteer-based authority to handle.
The authority was also responsible for the Butler BlueSox, a North American Baseball Alliance team. The authority announced in February 2025 the BlueSox would not hit the field that summer.
After discussions, a 10-year management agreement between the city and district was approved by both entities’ boards and went into effect July 1. Under it, the city maintained ownership of the park and bankrolled repairs, while the district’s athletics department took over the day-to-day operations.
Three members of the parks authority also met June 17, to unanimously agree to the management agreement, transfer the park and dissolve the organization.
Repairs began in earnest later in July, when city council voted to accept a bid on synthetic turf for the park’s infield. While the initial bid was for around $162,216, the turf ultimately cost around $252,000 after change orders, White said.
The city also approved a number of other repairs and upgrades in 2025, including $21,614 on roof repairs in August, $124,747 on replacing seats in September, $87,744 on replacing the warning track in October and $53,334 on new netting.
Bill Mylan, the district’s athletic director, said the turf was just completed Feb. 27 and was tested March 4. Practices and scrimmages began shortly after.
However, he said the new seats and netting will need to wait until the end of the season before they can be installed. He added the netting is still in pretty good shape, but needs to be extended, and most of the seats are still in working condition.
“They told me it was going to be a two-week shutdown at the end of March (to install it) and I was like hold on. I told them politely, that can’t happen,” Mylan said about the netting.
A number of the park’s indoor rooms have also been cleaned and prepared for event hosting, including a large boardroom on the field side and two smaller rooms on the exterior side.
White said he’s had some preliminary discussions with Dandoy regarding locker rooms at the facility, but the entities are still tackling the more pressing work beforehand.
Concessions will be run by Metz Culinary Management, the district’s food service company, and will look to offer an array of ballpark-appropriate treats. Plans are also in the works for Metz to offer catering services for events hosted at the field.
However, White said the first-floor concessions area needs some last touches before Metz can start serving hot foods out of it. He estimates about one week of work left before the district can go through an inspection, which will take about another two weeks.
“Once this gets inspected and cleared, we’ll operate down here,” he said.
He said when the concessions requires more hands, volunteers will be allowed to work there, with some kickback to the boosters.
“We’re going to take the concession profits and split it. Of the proceeds, 50% goes back to the park, and 50% will be divided among the boosters based on how many hours their organization worked over the course of the season,” he said.
In the meantime, Mylan said Metz will offer prepackaged snacks and drinks at the upstairs service area starting with Monday’s game.
Costs of renting the facility for games depends on the type of team playing there, with high school teams getting lower rates while college teams get higher rates. While there are still spots in the spring, Mylan said the summer is almost booked out.
“We’ll see where we’re at,” he said. “Everything’s brand new for us in terms of seeing what the revenue’s going to generate. That may change next year.”
White said the goal for now is to make the park operate at least at net zero in the next two years, with the hope the district would be able to set profits aside for future work.
“Ultimately, we want to start putting away money for the future so we have it in 10 years when we need to replace the turf again. It’d be nice to put $20,000 or $40,000 a year away, but that might not be realistic. Even just $20,000 is better than nothing,” he said.
White said he hopes to see the field continue to be a point of pride. While the city owns it and the district operates it, he said the park will always belong to the community.
