Baseball Fans Remain at High Risk of Foul Ball Injury in Peoria Chiefs’ Dozer Park

Baseball fans returning to see the Peoria Chiefs tonight for Opening Day at Dozer Park will continue to face the potential for life-threatening injuries from dangerous high-speed foul balls.

Improvements to extend the minor league ballpark’s protective netting were originally scheduled to happen in 2020, but the Chiefs claimed the project was delayed due to COVID-19. The team promised that the changes were coming soon, with the general manager Jason Mott telling the media in May 2021 that it “might be able to happen during this 2021 season.”

Last Spring, Foul Ball Safety Now flew a banner behind a plane over Peoria and the ballpark, displaying the message “Wake Up Dozer! Nets!” to call attention to the lack of extended netting at the home of the Peoria Chiefs, the High-A Central affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Nearly a year later, as the Chiefs welcome fans back for opening day 2022, phone calls made to the Dozer Park box office by Foul Ball Safety Now reveal there is still no new netting to protect fans.

“I am shocked, but not surprised. Despite their promises, the Chiefs are still operating under their dangerous status quo, continuing to put fans in harm’s way,” said Jordan Skopp, founder of Foul Ball Safety Now. “Families need to understand the risk they and their children face because of the lack of extended netting at Dozer Park.”

“By the team’s own admission, approximately 10 spectators were hit by foul balls in 2019, including ‘two or three’ fans who needed medical attention and left the ballpark. Yet here we are in 2022 and no improvements have been made. To me that is not only irresponsible business, it’s disrespectful to the fans who support the team,” Skopp continued, citing a report by the Peoria Journal Star in May 2021.

Foul ball injuries to fans continue to occur throughout professional baseball due to the lack of a standardized, mandated approach to fan safety, and Foul Ball Safety Now will soon release the 2022 edition of its minor league netting report. The group published its MLB netting report last week, and a previous report on Spring Training facilities last month.

For more information, visit FoulBallSafetyNow.com.

About Foul Ball Safety Now

Foul Ball Safety Now! is a campaign started by Jordan Skopp, a Brooklyn realtor, lifelong baseball fan, and author of a forthcoming book about the wildly overlooked scandal in the professional baseball industry – the all-too-frequent incidence of fans being maimed by dangerous foul balls due to the lack of extended protective netting, and related failures to educate fans about their assumed risk at the ballgame. For more information, visit Foul Ball Safety Now https://www.foulballsafetynow.com/