COLUMBUS, Ohio — The concrete is poured and the steel is rising. By next April, the corner of Nationwide Boulevard and Neil Avenue will be home to Huntington Park, a $56 million facility that will be the new downtown playpen of the Columbus Clippers.
It also figures to be the new home for the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, who have provided a golden era for baseball in Buffalo since 1995 but are almost certain to be gone for good from Dunn Tire Park come September.
No one will talk on the record about any potential move of Tribe prospects from Buffalo to Columbus. Memos have been sent from the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues to all minor-league teams, warning that any statements about affiliation changes could be construed as tampering and subject to fines.
But the Tribe’s move to Columbus is the International League’s worst-kept secret. Buffalo will thus be home to prospects likely from either Toronto, the New York Mets or Washington in 2009.
“The process has been outlined, we’ll go through September and then people will talk,” IL President Randy Mobley said here recently. “But I would have my head in the sand to think there aren’t some back-channel things going on.”
Certainly, the Indians wouldn’t be leaving Buffalo if Columbus were not building a new park. But the Tribe also wants to use the city as a marketing tool: It wants to pull away Reds fans to make Columbus an Indians market and it will then televise Triple- A games from the Ohio state capital on its fledgling network, Sports-Time Ohio, something it would not do from Buffalo.
And when the inevitable day comes when money is needed for improvements at 15-year-old Progressive Field, it’s easier to ask Ohio officials to pony up when your Triple-A team is there.
What folks in Columbus will be getting will be another jewel of a ballpark. It will continue the trend of downtown, open-air grass fields that began in Buffalo in 1988 but be more intimate than what’s gone up lately in places such as Louisville and Indianapolis. Huntington Park will seat just over 8,000 and the total house will hit 10,000 counting grass and standing-room areas.
There will be loges, suites, a picnic area, a huge HD scoreboard and outfield warehouses built to fit into the area that remind you of the Western Metals building incorporated into San Diego’s Petco Park. The home radio announcer will call games from a glass-enclosed booth right in the crowd so fans can watch him work. And it will be one of the “greenest” parks around, with dramatic reductions in use of heating and air conditioning elements. Click here to see a live web cam of Huntington Park.
The downtown Arena District has exploded in the last eight years since the opening of Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL’s Blue Jackets. The ballpark is another huge piece.
Columbus stadium attracts the Cleveland Indians
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“It’s not a stadium. It’s an open-air park where baseball is played,” said Clippers President/GM Ken Schnacke. “There will be a significant difference when you compare it to places built the last 30 years.”
“It’s the talk of the town,” said Franklin County Administrator Donald L. Brown. “It’s going to be a magnet not only for people in this community but for the many convention and tourist visitors that come to town. This adds 72 more event days to an Arena District that’s already bustling.”
Herd made improvements
In 2002, when there were fears the Indians were going to leave Buffalo for the new Fifth Third Field in Toledo, the Tribe gave the Bisons a wish-list for Dunn Tire Park.
The Bisons obliged, spending more than $200,000 to expand the clubhouse, coaches’ offices, weight room and family rooms, and to add a second batting cage and mounds to the service level. This time, there are no major needs. The Indians haven’t pushed for any changes and Mobley’s answer is “none whatsoever” when asked if there are any major deficiencies at the park.
As Dunn Tire pushes on into middle age, baseball’s stadium boom carries on. By 2010, every International League city will have built a new park since 1988 and everyone in the big leagues except the Chicago Cubs, Boston, Kansas City, Anaheim and Los Angeles will have built a new one as well in that time. And all of those except Chicago's Wrigley Field have undergone major renovations.
What’s going on in the International League has been a fierce stadium war. The Ottawa franchise moved this year to Allentown, Pa., and a new 10,000-seat stadium. Columbus opens next year and it appears Charlotte will have a facility ready for 2010.
The Diamond in Richmond, Va., built in 1985, won’t be in the IL because the Richmond Braves are moving to a new park in Gwinnett County, Ga. So with Columbus and the new Georgia stadium, the Bisons will be playing in the league’s oldest park next season. (Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium was opened in 1946 but underwent a total renovation in 1998).
“That’s pretty amazing. It seems like yesterday we were in Buffalo in 1988 for the [Triple-A] All-Star Game and I remember [ex-Met] Gregg Jefferies in that game,” Mobley said. “I was told early the top becomes the bottom and the bottom becomes the top and things run in cycles. It proves to be true.”
Columbus currently plays in Cooper Stadium, a throwback dating to the 1930s on the west side of town. There’s plenty of history there (it was the home of the great Yankees’ Triple- A teams of the ’80s and ’90s) but the place lacks most modern amenities.
Mobley got his start there as a Clippers intern in 1980 so he has a particular affinity for it.
“It’s special but at the same time we all understand it’s lived its useful life in baseball,” Mobley said, relaxing in a front-row box seat during batting practice. “It’s not like it’s falling down but it’s time to move on.”
“When you sit in the seats and look out, it’s still as pretty as ever,” said Schnacke, who has been with the team since 1977. “But it’s 76 years old and the infrastructure is really not doing well. Change is hard for people but like in all instances of new ballparks done right, we’re hoping to create an atmosphere where people say, ‘Geez, why didn’t we do this before?’ ”
Talk began in 1999 about a new stadium in Columbus. The team is owned and operated by Franklin County and both the team and the park have been debt free since 1996. The new park is being built by a collaborative effort from the state, county and city as well as the corporate sector. Huntington Park, for instance, paid $12 million to get naming rights.
Plans are to sell Cooper Stadium in the $3 million to $4 million range and it will then be turned into a motorsports park. It’s reasonable to think the new stadium will be filled close to capacity most nights so Columbus could push Louisville, Pawtucket, Allentown and Buffalo in the race for the IL attendance lead.
“It’s looking like a ballpark and that’s the exciting part,” Mobley said. “And it’s in the right spot. The Arena District is where it’s happening. That’s the place to go. You don’t want to do a bad deal just to get a new ballpark.”
Full houses would bulk up the county coffers and thus quickly pay off stadium construction costs.
“This ballpark isn’t straining resources a bit,” Brown said. “The franchise is debt free. As the economy changes and as the community’s needs change, we’re in a position to respond here in a way that maybe other places haven’t been able to.”
Bisons felt at home
At the Bisons’ series in Cooper Stadium last month, many fans came to the park in Indians jerseys. A logo baseball giveaway had many choosing one adorned with the Indians and Bisons logos over one with the Clippers and Nationals logos.
Herd manager Torey Lovullo said his team has gotten used to having plenty of fans rooting for them in Columbus.
“The past two years, and no disrespect to the Columbus Clippers, it seems there’s more fan support for the Buffalo Bisons than for them,” said Lovullo, who played here in 1991 and 1992. “. . . We feel that support. They call players by their first name and it’s exciting for these guys.”
Several fans interviewed said they came specifically to see the Indians’ prospects. Columbus businessman Kevin Fox, wearing a Tribe jersey, even joked how weird it would be to be rooting for the Clippers’ opponent that night.
“I know Jeremy Sowers is pitching tonight,” he said. “[Shin-Soo] Choo is here. I’ll be keeping my eyes on what’s coming our way for Cleveland. If the Indians came here, I would come more often [next season].”
While fans will have plenty of amenities in Huntington Park, so will the players. Large clubhouses, batting cages and office space will be the norm.
“We consulted with many people in our industry and everything will be state of the art,” Schnacke said. “There will be a huge weight room between the locker rooms for both teams. In the old days, everything was separated. But today’s opponent was yesterday’s teammate. As long as you have a division time-wise, there’s no reason not to do that.”
Because the ballpark is downtown and includes meeting space, it can be used for functions year-round.
“This is a big challenge and we’re gearing up for it,” Schnacke said. “When we go down there on day one, we’ve got to be picture-perfect. We’ve been here a long time. We’ve been a good citizen in this community for 32 years and we’re looking at more staff. We’ve added a director of corporate event planning for functions. We’re going to offer convention space for 365 days a year, some very different, unique spaces for the community.”
Said Brown: “We can’t wait. My message to anybody would be come see us next spring.”
mharrington@buffnews.com Link Definitely a great way to attract the Indians fans in Columbus.
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