Baseball championship brings economic boost to City of North Little Rock
The HBCU Athletic Conference held its 2025 Hope Credit Union Baseball Championship in Arkansas, bringing a significant boost to North Little Rock’s economy.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) held its 2025 Hope Credit Union Baseball Championship here in the Natural State.
“We were in a bid process for our baseball championship, and our bid consultant had been working and having some initial conversations,” HBCUAC commissioner Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes said.
From there, plans swung into action as the HBCUAC partnered with North Little Rock Tourism and the Arkansas Travelers to turn ideas into reality.
“They’ve got a great stadium then the cherry on the top is great people. And so after having that conversation, we realized this would be a great place for us to host our Hope Credit Union Baseball Championship,” Barnes said.
North Little Rock Tourism Vice President for Strategic Sales Heather Kouns said pitching the city as a host was the right fit.
For them, all roads led to Dickey-Stephens Park and what that meant for the tournament as a whole.
“You create a place where people want to live. When you create a place where people want to live, you create to live, you create a place where businesses want to invest, when you create place where businesses want to invest, you therefore create a quality of life,” Kouns said.
It’s that quality that led to an estimated $300,0000 economic impact and an experience of a lifetime.
“I think a lot of times people just look at this as a baseball facility, or just a place where the Travelers play and like we’re learning, and we’re showing the community that we can be so much more than that,” Kouns said.
That also meant creating long-lasting opportunities for the players—something the Travelers General Manager Sophie Ozier told THV11 they strive to do.
It’s just another layer to the boost the tournament had on the community.
“We’ve actually had quite a few of the players asking our grounds crew about their jobs and what they do, because obviously our grounds crew is going down there in between every game. I think it’s been good for the players to see. Maybe if I [the players] don’t continue to play, what are other ways that I can still be involved around the sport,” Ozier said.
With the tournament coming to a close, Kouns said that they hope to host again and ultimately grow in the future with other events.