Greeley, CO. – It’s hard not to be impressed with the plans for the Rocky Mountain Sports Park in north Windsor.

It’s hard not to get excited about the potential for the youth sports facility.

And it’s hard not to ask: Is this really going to happen ?

It was a mixture of emotions with which we greeted the announcement earlier this week.

It’s certainly an impressive project: About 65 youth baseball fields; a 10,000-seat featured stadium that eventually could be home to a minor league team; slightly more than 400 acres for the sports fields; and 200-plus acres for commercial development, which could include hotels, restaurants and retail shops.

And the real kicker: This will be a $225 million investment.

There’s no question this has the potential to be a game-changer for Windsor and the entire northern Colorado region. It is billed as the largest such sports park in the world. Cooperstown, N.Y., which also is home to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, plus Las Vegas, Nev., have similar facilities for youth baseball tournaments and clinics, but the Windsor facility will be bigger.

The economic impact could be huge. Thousands — no, tens of thousands — of people could end up visiting the sports park in a typical summer.

A former Colorado Rockies player and current broadcaster is involved in the project, leading us to believe perhaps other major league baseball players or executives are involved as investors or advisers. Perhaps Dick and Charlie Monfort of Greeley, the majority owners of the Rockies?

Plans for the facility are impressive, and construction likely will start this fall, said Sean Logan and Mike Billadeau of Windsor. Billadeau is the president of Rocky Mountain Sports Park, and Logan is the director of marketing.

But there’s a lot of unknowns so far.

The investment of $225 million is a lot of money. Who in northern Colorado has that kind of money sitting around? Who has such passion for youth sports, especially baseball?

We’ll eventually find out, we are told, but for now, we have to wonder — not if they will come but if it will be built as planned.

We’re also wondering how Windsor, and perhaps some adjacent government entities, will pay for the necessary infrastructure to make this happen: Traffic will grow immensely, and roads will have to be expanded, stoplights installed, water and sewer extended.

We’re not sure how much all of that will cost, and who will pay for it, but it won’t be cheap.

On the other hand, it’s easy to get excited about the regional economic impact of such a facility. Logan described it as the “ultimate stay and play” facility in the world. Those who stay will spend money. All municipal entities in northern Colorado — more specifically, the town of Windsor — will see an increase in sales tax revenues, restaurant sales and hotel stays.

We’ll be more excited when we hear more details that put some of our doubts to rest, but for now we are in the cautiously optimistic camp the Rocky Mountain Sports Park will be one of the most positive developments to occur in our region.