COEUR d'ALENE - Call it the top of the first inning.

While opening day for a proposed $3 million American Legion Baseball stadium is still too far off to schedule, a group of baseball supporters is organizing a fundraising drive to replace the legion diamond on McEuen Field with a state-of-the-art facility next to Cherry Hill Park.

"To me, it's a field of dreams," said Ron Ouren, a Panhandle Parks Foundation member leading the fundraising pitch that is expected to kick off in earnest in a month.

Conceptual drawings, penned by Team McEuen, show a roughly 1,000-seat stadium on 5 acres the city purchased last week for $440,000 from the Coeur d'Alene Eagles.

The playing field would be a synthetic surface, easier to maintain in wet conditions. Locker rooms and a museum to house a regional Hall of Fame could be part of the building. The expected cost, sought mostly from private donations and sponsors, could run between $2 million and $3 million.

American Legion Baseball board vice president Phil Robbins said this week the board is holding off commenting on the proposed complex until they have studied the plan.

Ouren said the Panhandle Parks Foundation nonprofit is expecting to contract professional fundraiser Jim Faucher March 15 to turn the field of dreams into reality. Details on that agreement haven't been worked out yet, but Faucher, who helped raise $8 million to build the Kroc Community Center, said he is willing to charge much less than his going rate on the project.

"We love the community," he said.

The group will also be forming a steering committee, with American Legion representatives, to help with the planning.

"We have a lot of great (baseball) talent," Ouren said. "I think this is all about enhancing the program."

The field could also host softball and Little League games, and its outfield could be turned into a soccer field for games. Down the line, it could play home to a wooden-bat summer league team. The Spokane-based collegiate-aged team, the RiverHawks, expressed interest in moving to Coeur d'Alene in 2009, but owners did not respond for comment this week.

American Legion baseball, however, would always have priority on the field, Ouren said.

"Certainly, the primary tenant is the American Legion," he said.

The program would have scheduling priority and the ability to benefit from concession and ticket sales.

American Legion would lose its home field on McEuen Field if Phase 1 of the downtown park's redevelopment project goes through. A promise the city made if it were to remove the ballfield would be to provide a replacement facility at equal or better value. Removing the field was one of the more polarizing topics about the park's conceptual plan. Council members Steve Adams, Ron Edinger and Dan Gookin opposed the city's land purchase from the Eagles last week on grounds that it could be used to replace the yet-to-be-displaced ballfield.

But the city approved the land purchase, and officials said the site off 15th Street could be ideal for a state-of-the-art baseball stadium.

Replacing the diamond at McEuen dollar-for-dollar would be around $900,000, Ouren said, but "if you're going to do it, do it right."

It could be ready by 2013 at the earliest, Ouren said, but more likely by 2014. The Legion team could play games temporarily at the high school fields until the new field is completed.