Waynesboro hopes to gain baseball team

Media General News Service
Published: March 24, 2008

It’s quiet outside Lynchburg City Stadium.

Beyond the outfield wall is a large cemetery, and there are residential neighborhoods, and some industrial businesses nearby, but there’s no place to eat and no nearby shops.

The stadium’s recent renovation didn’t revitalize downtown Lynchburg, but it ensured, according to Assistant General Manager Ronnie Roberts, that the Hillcats remain a part of the community and that the organization is profitable.

While Waynesboro’s downtown has been less than lively, some city officials and business leaders are hoping a stadium could make downtown a hub of activity through a 4,000-seat, $20 million stadium for a Class A or independent league team. Charlottesville developer Jim Morris has been working for more than a year on the project.

Judging by experiences in other minor league cities, Waynesboro will have a difficult, though not impossible task.

Arthur T. Johnson, author of “Minor League Baseball and Economic Development,” argues in the book that stadiums can be used for three main purposes - to open up new land for development, bring new energy to downtowns and add to a community’s recreational structure.

“The stadium has to be used for more than minor league baseball,” Johnson said.

In Aberdeen, Md., home to a short-season Class A team, the IronBirds, the town’s $18 million stadium - opened in June 2002 - plays host to more than 200 events a year, including 38 minor league baseball games. Among its upcoming events are a home and garden show and the Maryland Beer Fest.

The team regularly sells out its 6,000 seat stadium, in no small part because a baseball icon, former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, is a part owner.

The Class A Lynchburg Hillcats -affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball - sell out about 10 of their 70 home dates each year, Roberts said, typically on nights where they shoot off fireworks. But he said that putting on a game involves regular special events and giveaways.

And though the Hillcats don’t play in the heart of Lynchburg’s downtown, they are active in the community, he said, visiting schools and participating in civic events.

Johnson says the stadium can’t be a stand-alone project, that there has to be “a 12-month strategy.”

“You don’t just build these things and hope that it works,” Johnson said. “You really have to look at the development logic and evaluate it based upon that logic.”

He said Waynesboro, based upon its population of slightly more than 20,000 people, might have difficulties.

“I would think to have any kind of major impact would be difficult given the small population,” Johnson said.

The city wouldn’t have to have a minor league-affiliated team, though, to have it be beneficial to the city. At least that’s what officials in Charles County, Maryland are hoping for.

Its new 4,500-seat stadium will play host to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, backed by another legendary former Oriole - Brooks Robinson.

Funding for its $24 million stadium is being split evenly between the county, state of Maryland and the team’s ownership group.

Morris is seeking a similar deal for the Waynesboro stadium project.

The Blue Crabs will have a 20-year lease on the Charles County, Md.-owned facility.

The one-time economic impact for construction of the stadium is $27 million, with an expected $14.7 million economic impact for day-to-day operations. It’s expected to generate more than $800,000 annually from taxes. New development was not taken into account in the study.

Waynesboro officials might want to follow closely the process under way in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where city officials last summer approved issuing $25 million in bonds to build a downtown, 4,000-seat stadium for a Class A team as part of a massive, $250 million redevelopment plan. That development is expected to create at least 800 permanent jobs.

The lease agreement - for 20 years - caps the cost of the ballpark at $23 million. It will be part of a mixed-use neighborhood, with one of its elements being a performing arts center.

Besides the bonds, a special tax increment financing district has been established, and Art Solomon - the project investor - will be paying for it.