Home Run Dugout Takes Big Swing in Growing Entertainment Corridor Near Talking Stick

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on August 20, 2024

A growing Texas entertainment concept is stepping up to the plate near Scottsdale.

Austin-based Home Run Dugout, which offers soft-toss baseball batting cages, is opening its first location outside Texas near Loop 101 and Talking Stick Way on Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community land. It will start construction on a 65,000-square-foot building in 2025. The concept, which can roughly be described as Topgolf for baseball, will be located next to the existing Topgolf near Talking Stick Resort & Casino.

That 65,000-square-foot building will house 30 batting bays, a Biergarten mini-field, an on-site restaurant and three bars. Each of the batting bays features a 20-by-12-foot screen and five televisions to track hitting stats and other programming a party wants to watch.

The location will employ about 150 people in full- and part-time positions.

The decision to expand to Arizona coincides with Home Run Dugout raising $22.5 million in Series A funding, according to a news release. The company was founded in 2015 by childhood friends Nick Hermandorfer and Tyler Bambrick. The first location opened in 2019 at the stadium of the Triple-A affiliate for the Texas Rangers, the Round Rock Express, according to sister publication Austin Business Journal.

A second location has opened in Katy, Texas since then. In addition to the first Arizona location, the company is working on another in San Antonio.

“What we’re trying to do is reinvent the batting cage. The batting cages aren’t that fun. I don’t like to stand in front of a 70-mile-an-hour pitch,” Bambrick said. “What we developed and patented was our ground-up pitching machine. It’s a lot like dad soft-tossing it to you as a kid. It’s very easy to a kid and very not intimidating at all. We throw a tracking system along with that and gamify kind of the hitting experience. What we’re doing is creating a social environment around hitting a baseball.”

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