COEUR d'ALENE - After hibernating for a few years, the Spokane RiverHawks want to wake up and migrate to Coeur d'Alene.

What's drawing the collegiate summer league baseball club - and the difference between years past when the team made similar claims - is the proposed $3 million state-of-the-art baseball complex at Cherry Hill Park. The complex would give the organization a permanent home.

Local organizers behind the baseball proposal say the stadium is on track to be ready for games by summer 2014.

And discussions with the RiverHawks and West Coast League representatives - the wooden-bat league in which the team plays - about landing the franchise in the Lake City are moving at the same fastball's pace.

"An anchor tenant," Ron Ouren, baseball stadium fundraising chairman, called the RiverHawks. "It's a real vital part to the long term success of this facility."

The fundraising team, called the Field of Dreams cabinet, has pinpointed a timeline to raise money to turn the proposed complex into a reality.

It's in discussions with entities about its biggest three sponsorship opportunities - around $2 million's worth to name the stadium, playing field, and scoreboard - and aims to have two-thirds of the fundraising total by Jan. 31, 2013, they said.

Social fundraising events could be held in the fall, too.

While the proposed stadium would host a variety of leagues, sports and even concerts, the baseball groups are seeing eye-to-eye so far about making the Spokane team a primary occupant.

"The preliminary stadium drawings look promising," said Bobby Brett, Spokane Indians baseball club managing partner and friend of RiverHawks owner Irv Zakheim, both of whom have been meeting with the local group to work out details with the possible move. "It's a very solid group (in Coeur d'Alene) and they're involved with this for all the right reasons."

The groups will meet again next week in Coeur d'Alene and Spokane to discuss more details of what's needed to make the move.

But Brett, who has owned other teams in various cities and whose brother owns the Tri-City Dust Devils, said Coeur d'Alene has the capacity to support, and benefit economically, a summer league team - just as similar-sized Wenatchee, Wash., has.

"It's worked in those sized markets," he said. "And Coeur d'Alene is a very good baseball town with a very good baseball history."

The WCL is a summer league in which college players from the around the Northwest play with wooden bats. Like in minor league baseball, players live with host families during their stay. The league will have 12 teams next season, from Corvallis, Ore., to Bellingham, Wash., but could expand more in the coming years. Average game attendance is between 1,000 to 1,500. Its website says that no other college summer league has had as many former players reach the big leagues so early in its history.

"The West Coast League has had its eye on Coeur d'Alene since 2008," WCL President and Seattle Mariners broadcaster Ken Wilson told The Press, adding the league is "very much behind" the move if logistics work out. "It's attractive to our league in terms of having a real nice city and a really nice stadium."

The RiverHawks, whose uniforms have blue lettering outlined in gold across white tops and blue caps, have talked about moving to Coeur d'Alene as far back as 2009.

Zakheim was out of town this week and couldn't be reached for comment, but told The Press in 2009 he'd like to move east if a facility seating up to 1,000 was in place. The team hasn't played since then, and its website says the team is canceling games until its anticipated move to Coeur d'Alene.

While the team has talked about moving for years, plans for a baseball complex in Coeur d'Alene to host them weren't on the table back then.

Now they are. The city already purchased the land near Cherry Hill Park, and the ball club would lease the stadium.

The goal will still be to host as many levels of baseball events, from Little League to American Legion, as possible. Lacrosse, softball and soccer games, even music concerts, outdoor movies and classroom excursions would all be events for the stadium.

But a summer league team as an anchor tenant could be just the linchpin to ensure the stadium is a state-of-the-art home for baseball at all levels, organizers said.

"Obviously, we want to enhance baseball," Ouren said. "This would be a whole other tier."

Info: www.FieldOfDreamsCDA.com

New field for Legion, too

n The city of Coeur d'Alene approved a memorandum of understanding Tuesday night with American Legion Baseball to build a baseball field at Ramsey Park. The ball field, which should be ready by first pitch next year, will be the new home for the program since it will lose its home diamond at McEuen Field when the downtown park undergoes reconstruction.

Meet the fundraising team

• Don Larsen, honorary chair; Ron Ouren, chair; Harry Amend, Alan Asper, LaDonna Beaumont, Jack Bloxom, Rick Brown, Dick Compton, Carrie Cook, Doug Eastwood, Pat Eberlin, Sandy Emerson, Jim Faucher, Bill Greenwood, Chris Guggemos, Casey Irgens, Ben Johnston, Paul Manzardo, Rick Shipman, Tim Skelton, Dick Stauffer, Randy Teall, Jack Wheir and Al Williams.