Todd Springer's new batting cages will open on Redmond's east side within two weeks under the name Baseball and More LLC. His new indoor sports facility was named using the initials of the first names of his 13-year-old daughter, Briana, and 11-year-old son, Mitchel.

REDMOND – A new indoor sports facility on the east side of town will give young and adult athletes a place to hone their baseball and softball skills, said Todd Springer, owner of Baseball and More LLC.

Springer has built a $650,000, 10,000-square-foot indoor sports facility that will contain four batting cages, a small practice infield, and basketball and volleyball courts.

The indoor facility – located on Southeast Jackson Street just north of state Highway 126 – is expected to open within two weeks, Springer said.

It will feature a variety of summer clinics and pro camps and will be open for baseball and softball teams throughout the year, Springer said.

Baseball and More also will sell sports gear and feature a video game room with a big-screen television and couches, he said.

The city’s population growth has brought an influx of sports-minded people searching for practice facilities and top-flight coaching, Springer said.

Multiple youth and adult baseball and softball teams in Redmond could use the facility as a practice space during winter and as a place for higher level instruction at other times, Springer said.

”There’s a lack of field space,” he said. ”Adult teams have nowhere to practice. There’s nothing for kids to do.”

In the past, athletes from Redmond who wanted to practice their baseball and softball skills during winter traveled to the Bend Field House, Springer said.

But the new facility could give local athletes a closer option.

Dennis Erisman, owner of the Redmond Panthers Baseball Club, said his youth teams traveled to the Bend Field House every Sunday during winter to practice.

”We’ve used the Bend Field House the last several years,” Erisman said. ”It makes it easier to do it in Redmond. But we’ll probably use both.”

Fast growth and demand for more field and gym practice space has prompted Jim Richards, owner of The Bend Field House and the Bend Elks Baseball Club in Bend, to consider expanding his operations.

Richards offers summer baseball camps and indoor practice space throughout the year. He’s expanded his operations from 2,400 square feet to 7,500 square feet with a volleyball and basketball floor, he said.

The baseball and softball operations at the Field House would be moved within a couple of years to a 12,000-square-foot space connected to Vince Genna Stadium, which Richards leases from the Bend Metro Park and Recreation District.

The project would cost between $500,000 and $750,000, said Richards, who would cover the cost.

It would still need approval from Bend Metro Park and Recreation and the city of Bend, he said.

”We could do more baseball-oriented training indoors,” he said. ”We would sell the current building (the Field House), which would carry forward the existing business, or convert it into a warehouse.”

His business, The Strike Zone of Bend LLC, has had 20 percent revenue growth each of the last five years, he said.

”The Little Leagues have not been able to keep up with the corresponding (demand for field space),” he said. ”It’s the same with youth basketball and volleyball. Some don’t have a place to practice.”