HAMMOND – Purdue University Calumet and the City of Hammond will partner in the development of an outdoor sports complex to serve the university’s athletics program and city activities.
The complex will be at Dowling Park in the Hessville neighborhood, about a mile from the PUC campus. When fully developed, it will have six tennis courts, a full size lighted soccer field with artificial turf and regulation baseball and softball fields with natural turf.
The first phase is the tennis complex and will begin when the university generates its share of the $625,000 cost. The second phase is the soccer field and the third phase is the baseball and softball fields.
“I am proud of this agreement between the city of Hammond and Purdue Calumet to improve Dowling Park,” said Mayor Tom McDermott. “This project will allow Hammond residents to share state of the art athletic facilities, and it also will greatly enhance our park. This is a true partnership.”
For Purdue, the complex is crucial to its plans to expand intercollegiate athletics to 12 team sports over the next few years. PUC has men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, men’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis. Next year, PUC will have men’s and women’s cross country with men’s and women’s soccer in 2013 and men’s baseball and women’s softball to follow.
