Beer sales will be permitted when the KC Iola Hormigas take the field at Allen Community College this summer.
College trustees — meeting this week for the first time since it was announced the Pecos League affiliate will play 20 of its games in Iola this year — voted 4-2 to allow beer sales, with Gena Clounch and Corey Shinstock opposed.
The vote came after a lengthy discussion about the procedures surrounding the games.
Doug Desmarteau, ACC’s athletic director, recounted the flurry of events that led the Hormigas to Iola.
“It’s a big opportunity for Iola to bring this into our community,” Desmarteau said.
Desmarteau said he was approached by a longtime friend, Andrew Dunn, who was left scrambling when plans for one of the teams — the Kansas City Hormigas — learned it would be unable to play all of its games in Kansas City’s Satchel Field Stadium.
Now, the Hormigas will play only in Kansas City on Sundays, and at Allen on Monday and Tuesday evenings and Wednesday afternoons.
Dunn previously told the Register the Pecos League, which has several Mexican League affiliates, is comparable to the AAA level in professional baseball.
Tickets will sell for $10 apiece, and access to the college parking lot will be controlled on game days, Desmarteau said.
Temporary fencing likely will run from dugout to dugout, including the big grandstands directly behind home plate, as the designated drinking area.
The secure site is necessary by the state, Desmarteau explained.
“If that’s a bad idea, we can find a different area,” Desmarteau said.
The Pecos League is paying the college $25,000 — half has already been paid — to use the field.
The team will likely hire several locals for such things as ticket-takers.
Dunn also has been in talks with several potential concessions vendors.
Players from both the Hormigas, and the visiting teams to town, will stay in Allen’s Herynk Hall, the three-story complex along White Boulevard, and the nearby Allen duplex units.
