Located at Wreath and Kimball Avenue, CiCo Park was established in 1962 for public use. Facilities currently include county fairgrounds, a swimming pool, sports complexes and more.
Aaron Stewart, director of parks and recreation for the City of Manhattan, said multiple groups share ownership of the park.
“CiCo Park is really unique because it is actually owned by the city, the county and the school district,” Stewart said. “The part where the ballfield sits, the city owns that parcel of land, where the tennis courts going in are on USD 383’s land, so this park is a unique partnership between the three entities.”
In the future, the park plans to expand its offerings to include new ballfields with dugouts and fresh turf to improve the level of play on the field.
“Our vision was to upgrade those facilities that were built back in the ‘60s,” Stewart said. “In particular, the drainage issues have made them [ballfields] unplayable; anytime it rained, we were unable to use them. We really wanted to push forward and build a high-quality complex for baseball and softball.”
This project, in partnership with BHS Construction, will completely demolish the previous park and start over with updated facilities.
The Quality-of-Life Sales Tax initiative funded the project, which was previously approved by the Manhattan community. According to the City of Manhattan’s website, “On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, Manhattan voters approved a 10-year, 0.25% sales tax to fund identified indoor and outdoor recreation and trail improvements in the community.”
The plan is projected to cost $27.5 million with staggering construction plans and the closure of the outdoor aquatic center for the 2025 season, furthering progress throughout the summer. However, the project has only cost a fraction of the projected worth so far.

“The Quality-of-Life Sales Tax is a city-initiated sales tax, meaning we’re the one issuing and collecting it, so that it’s the funder for all of our projects,” Stewart said. “That is a 10-year quarter-cent sales tax, compared to the CiCo Park project costing right under $16 million.”
Not all of the upgrades are city-led, though, Stewert said.
“There were some upgrades the school district asked for, such as dugouts and better scoreboards,” Stewert said. “They are actually going to complete a throwing area on their land between the ballfields and the tennis courts, which they are funding. Most of the funding would be from that same sales tax, with exceptions of some upgrades from the school district.”
The park is set to open in two parts, with the ballfields opening first, Stewert said.
“Our anticipation, despite it being a rainy summer, is an April of 2026 opening for the ballfield, and September of 2026 for the tennis courts.”
With the complete revamp of CiCo Park, owners will take the facility in a new direction with a new name, Stewart said.
“In order to create in partnership and a capital reinvestment fund with the Manhattan Recreation Foundation, we are selling the naming rights and several of the other assets for the facility,” Stewart said. “The first being naming the entire complex, along with the name for each field. We are creating a fund through the foundation that, when we need to make capital reinvestments such as replacing the turf, we have a certain dollar amount sitting there ready to maintain that facility, to ideally keep it as high quality as possible.”