Hammons Field

• Name: Hammons Field
• GPS-able Address: 955 East Trafficway Street, Springfield, MO 65802
• Ballpark Owner: City of Springfield
• Architects: Pellham Phillips Architects & Engineers
• Groundbreaking: 7/7/2002
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Springfield Cardinals (AA) 2005-present
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: AA/Texas League 2022-present; AA/Double-A Central 2021; AA/Texas League 2005-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/2/2005; Cardinals-Cardinals exhibition
• Others Playing or Operating Here: Southwest Missouri State University Bears
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 315 CF: 400 RF: 330
• Seats: 7,986
• Stated Capacity: 10,486
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 11,818; 7/4/2013

Hammons Field in Springfield, MO, is the home of the Springfield Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals' Double-A Texas League farm team. It was also the big Cards' 2020 Coronavirus pandemic alternate training site.

Local hotel mogul John Q. Hammons funded the ballpark to stimulate downtown development. Opened in April 2004 as the home of the Missouri State University Bears, it gained professional baseball when the Cards bought and moved the El Paso Diablos in 2005. At the stadium-hosted news conference that announced the move, Hammons said: "This is a great day that I knew would get here sometime."

Hammons worked well into his 80s and died in 2013. Most of his estate, including the ballpark, went into bankruptcy in 2016. At the time, the team's lease ran through 2025 - but the relationship between team and bankruptcy trust quickly began to devolve over financial issues. The trust's decision to hike 2019 game-day parking rates under its control was the first public disagreement between the two, but before the next season the club - still owned by its parent Cardinals - sued the trust for allegedly failing to maintain the ballpark as required by the lease. The suit both dated those allegations to well before the parking issue and cited "gouging" fans with high parking fees.

Those factors combined to raise the real possibility of Springfield losing its team, but the city stepped up February 1, 2023, to announce it would buy the ballpark, a parking facility and a lot that could be developed into one for a combined $12 million and also to fund $4 million worth of renovations. The deal also extended the Cards' lease through 2038 and set up untying the city from the bankruptcy case. Springfield City Council approved the plan on February 14th, and the deal formally closed on March 28th. A week later, the Cardinals' lawsuit was dismissed on their motion.

The stadium purchase simplified things, but MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization likely would have made the lawsuit moot because the restructuring's new ballpark standards would have forced renovations.

Hammons also donated $30 million to MSU to construct a basketball facility, JQH Arena. He was an alumnus of the school, which was known as Southwest Missouri State Teachers College when he attended. Comedian Bob Hope, seeing the Hammons name on so many Springfield buildings, once quipped the city should be called Hammonsville.

In 2019, S-Cards Head Groundskeeper Brock Phipps won an unprecedented seventh overall and fourth straight Sports Turf Manager of the Year Award.

The Texas League's most-traveled franchise also called home: Galveston, TX; Waco, TX; Galveston again; Shreveport, LA; Victoria, TX; Ardmore, OK; Albuquerque, NM; and El Paso, TX.