Indoor Practice Facilities

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Oct 15, 2013
727
63
Seattle, WA
Those of you in warmer climes don't have to worry about this so much, but the rest of us need to move indoors around this time of year. This is one of two of the indoor facilities our organization uses. It's an old airplane hangar from when the site was used to train pilots for WWII. It's not the nicest, but it's big, about 60x40 yards. For fielding teams usually use softies as regular balls skid on the cement floor, but there's plenty of room for Wiffles, heavy balls and the lite flight machine.

You'll have to take my word for it, but on the right we have Sis Bates, Taryn Atlee and Rachel Ogasawara from the UW working with some of our girls while Taran Avelo gives a pitching lesson out of the shot.

Our other facility is a double gym at a local college that can be separated by net if it's wanted.

What's your indoor facility like?

Hangar30indoor.jpg
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
In Indiana brother belonged to cage place. You could hit and pitch but there was not enough room for much fielding work, certainly nothing with a team fielding.

It was all watched by camera and they could go there 24/7 for a minimal monthly charge.

We also got access for free to our elementary schools after hours, they had staff there until 10 or so. Not enough players were showing up so stopped it, really nice of them to open up for us through.

We rent places not close to that size now, was that used to store a blimp?
 
Last edited:
Mar 4, 2018
126
28
If that facility had turf it would be really nice.

The facility we use is only about half the size of yours. It has a 70' x 70' infield, two batting tunnels, some standing room for parents, storage room, and a bathroom. Probably right about 10,000 square foot. The ceiling height is only about 15 foot tall.
 
Sep 11, 2017
43
6
Seattle, WA
Those of you in warmer climes don't have to worry about this so much, but the rest of us need to move indoors around this time of year. This is one of two of the indoor facilities our organization uses. It's an old airplane hangar from when the site was used to train pilots for WWII. It's not the nicest, but it's big, about 60x40 yards. For fielding teams usually use softies as regular balls skid on the cement floor, but there's plenty of room for Wiffles, heavy balls and the lite flight machine.

You'll have to take my word for it, but on the right we have Sis Bates, Taryn Atlee and Rachel Ogasawara from the UW working with some of our girls while Taran Avelo gives a pitching lesson out of the shot.

Our other facility is a double gym at a local college that can be separated by net if it's wanted.

What's your indoor facility like?

View attachment 13317



Someone should do the legwork to get some old high school turf donated to that place. That would be a phenomenal indoor facility with turf. I am here in the greater Seattle area also, and we've had two indoor facilities that got the old HS football turf and it has worked out awesome!
 
Oct 15, 2013
727
63
Seattle, WA
Yes, turf would make it pretty sweet, but we just rent the place three nights a week. It's used for other things as well, gymnastic meets, trade shows etc. We're not allowed to alter it in anyway. I deny using a sharpie on the floor to mark throw down base locations.
 
Feb 26, 2018
328
28
Our org has 2 domes and a batting cage facility. It's a pretty sweet setup, but dome time is tight, so we get in and get out because it's scheduled to the minute between all the other teams and activities.
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
We have five or six large indoor turf facilities in our area (eastern PA), the biggest problem is getting time at one. There are so many softball, baseball, lacrosse, and soccer teams that these spaces book up for the whole winter very quickly. We're lucky to have an agreement between our organization and one of the larger spaces, but even with preferential treatment, we get some weird times and there's always some team tapping their toes on the sidelines during the last 10 minutes of practice (as our girls do to the group that precedes them).

The space itself is an 80-yard turf field that gets subdivided by nets into different sections depending on who is booked there. They have drop-down batting tunnels as well.

DD's pitching coach just found a gem of a place, although it adds a good 15 minutes to our commute there. There's a big warehouse that has an unused indoor field hockey court in the back. It's a great space, just wish it were closer.
 

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