Why I don’t go to “the game” anylonger. Not to mention the huge ticket prices.

http://cbs3.com/local/Philadelphia.Phillies.Matthew.2.1636036.html

Why do I have the feeling that before this is done, it is REALLY gonna hurt???

I’m confused.

Is someone really proposing to drop $20 million on a stadium for AAA baseball?

Is someone really thinking they can build a stadium the size of the Dodger’s stadium for $20 million?

I hear things from street preachers that make more sense.

EDITOR NOTE–They are talking of a 5,000 seat park. We showed the size of the playing field and current Hawks park for comparison.

All,

The first image (on a dirt lot) is the site BG thinks Boise may advocate for — it’s located between Main Street and Fairview Avenue, just west of 27th Street (across Fairview from the old Goodman Oil site).

The light blue line indicates the size of the current Hawks Stadium off of Glenwood — the outline contains the ballfield, the stadium seating, the concession stands, and the ticket booths. But, it does not contain the adjacent parking areas.

The other picture shows both the light blue outline of Hawks Stadium and the Red outline of the the Fairview (Boise) site overlaid on top of the Giants’ AT&T Park in San Francisco. BG had made a comment about how Boise’s proposal might mean that kayakers on the Boise River could shag fly balls — just like boaters in the Bay at AT&T Park. For the record, AT&T Park cost $357M to construct and opened with a seating capacity of 40,800.

The image of AT&T Park also shows that it is feasible to build a 5,000 seat Minor League stadium on the Fairview site — but there’s very little room for any of the other sundry on-site amenities that go with such urban ball fields, let alone any on-site parking.

The images convinced me that if parking and transit issues can be worked out, the Fairview site might be a very good location for a Minor League field. To get a good picture of what a comparable Minor League ballfield looks like, here’s a link to CONSOL Energy Park’s website (home of the Washington Wild Things):

http://www.frontiernet.net/~rochballparks4/washington/washington.htm

The field (and stands) has a slightly larger footprint than the existing Hawks Stadium, but the whole facility is quite large due to the on-site surface parking lots and adjacent soccer fields. CONSOL Energy Park was built for $5.8M (including $2M in public assistance) in 2002. Though it seats 5,000 concert attendees (Willy Nelson has played there), it only seats 3,200 during ball games. The Wild Things almost always sell out their games.

I listened to an interview by a local radio station of a Boise Hawks official – don’t remember his name. Among the things I remember him saying was that the Cubs (parent team of the Hawks) were in general happy with Memorial Stadium, except that they would like to see the home team dugout loacted in the shade (instead of the sun) and that they really want more facilities for the players, such as weight rooms. He also indicated that changes to the existing stadium, including adding weight rooms, etc, could be done by the current ownership (I assume this is if there is land available at the site) but that if a new stadium was to be built they estimated it would cost $20 million and could not be done unless it was a private/public partnership. He also said that there might be as many as 15 sites in Boise (or maybe he said Boise & Meridian) big enough to do the job. And, they would need 1600 parking spaces at the site. The 1600 parking spaces seems to rule out the Fairview Ave site, based on your photos.

I appologize if I mis-remembered any of the interview.

Texmaniac,

I have to yield to you. It makes much more sense to compare a 5,000 seat stadium in boise to the 41,503 seat Giants AT&T Park than it does to compare it to 56,000 seat Dodger Stadium. Not.

As for DG’s wistful, “if parking and transit issues can be worked out”, I have two words: More Coolaid?

There is a small flaw to the discussion so far. It has centered on a location that would MAKE SENSE! What would cause anyone to assume that Boise city would do such a thing? It wouldn’t surprise me, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone, if they proposed to make Ann Morrison Park into a ball park!!! You need to think like the enemy if you expect to defeat, or control them!!

Wow, I didn’t know there was anything near 5000 Hawks baseball fans. Is is possible to scalp a Hawks ticket?

Dean, The red outlined shape does not look like the city owned Fairview site at all. It looks more like the Bob Rice Ford site west of 30th and north of Main.

Regardless, this came up at the 30th Street Master Plan charette meetings in Feb of 2007. It was determined by the hired urban planning guns, HDR, that neither of those sites, as they currently sit, was big enough for a minor league stadium.

I superimposed Fresno’s stadium on the Bob Rice site 3 years ago. It fit but with no room for parking.

The second aerial picture in the article shows the 2800 Fairview site, with the outline in a heavy dashed black line. The “site” includes the two adjacent lots that front Main Street. But, no single site would be enough to accommodate both the ball park AND its required parking.

Regarding transit, and the possibility that a downtown steel-wheeled transit system could be brought to this site, it is possible — though not very probable gien the per-mile cost of such a system. Re-opening the Orchard spur line from the Bench, over the Boise River, down to Government Island — for a Valley-wide Light Rail system is more foward-thinking, because it intercepts commuters before they need to drive into downtown Boise.

In terms of economic development, the boosterism for a steel-wheel downtown trolley from CCDC seems odd for a re-development agency — since such a system would only bring in a marginal number of additional customers to the downtown. It really only allows the existing downtown workers and retail customers to move around more easily. Is that what downtown businesses prefer? Or would the prefer a bigger slice of the retail market, that a large destination venue would bring?

Bringing an attraction like a Minor League ball park, actually brings more people to the surrounding area. There are a number of cities around the country that have worked the numbers and realized the economic benefit such a venue can be — to the extent that they contributed public funds to the development. It’s up to Boise to do the same — or not.

The one thing Meridian has going for it, is it’s relative centrality to the Valley’s residential population. But is this needed for a destination venue — especially one that would seem to require the majority of event attendees to travel on an over-glutted Interstate Highway & Interchange?

I’m afraid this wouldn’t change much in the future, even after the 10-Mile Interchange is opened. There’s little that State Tax Allotment Revenue or additional GARVEE funds could do to change this. And, I’m not sure local Redevelopment Funds can be spent on a Federal Interstate improvement (like an expanded Interchange) — but I may be wrong. If Meridian chose a transit friendly location near the existing rail spur line, when (if) a Light Rail transit service is added to the Valley, it could draw transit riders from both Boise and Nampa.

Hey, this idea doesn’t pass the Tea Party “socialistic” litmus test. Come to think of it, pro sprts like football don’t pass the test as well. Get after it Tea Party. End socialistic sports in America! If sports costs tax payer money, we don’t want it.