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http://dispatch.com/clippers/clippers.php?story=dispatch/2004/12/17/20041217-A1-02.html&chck=t
Demolish Cooper, experts say
Rebuilt or relocated, ballpark ‘needs to go’
Friday, December 17, 2004
Jim Woods
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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Cooper Stadium should be razed, architects said yesterday.
It would be better to demolish the old stadium and build a new ballpark around the present field for $38.8 million to $48.3 million, consultants told Franklin County commissioners.
That compares with the estimated $55 million cost of building a new stadium Downtown.
No matter what is built, private money would have to pay for it, commissioners say. And an earlier survey showed local corporations would be more willing to buy luxury suites and advertising at a new park Downtown.
The county’s taxpayers own Cooper Stadium and the Columbus Clippers baseball franchise.
"There is less interest in this (Cooper Stadium) site from the business community than there would with a Downtown site," said Kathleen Fox, executive director of the Ohio Arts and Sports Facilities Commission.
County commissioners in September asked the board that runs the Columbus Clippers to investigate private financing for a new ballpark.
Frank A. Ray, attorney for the Clippers, said the renovation study, presented by 360 Architecture yesterday, was needed before he could present the two alternatives to businesses interested in park naming rights, advertising or luxury suites.
"I had to have this piece to begin a meaningful process," Ray said.
Commissioners would make the final call on a ballpark. County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy said she hopes the commissioners can decide next year.
The field, first-base-side entry gate and a maintenance facility are the only things that should be salvaged from Cooper Stadium, said Scott Ralston, of 360 Architecture.
"Everything else needs to go away," he said.
The stadium was built in 1932 with a major renovation in the late 1970s. Ralston said the old park’s liabilities include narrow seats, aisles and concourses. There also are "poor sight lines" because of posts.
"That’s not acceptable," Ralston said. "Maybe at Fenway Park (in Boston), but not here."
Ralston proposes demolishing the 15,000-seat stadium and replacing it with a 9,200-seat facility with bowl seating. There would be 21 rows of seats.
An additional 1,000 customers would be accommodated with a new picnic-seating area behind the right-field fence. There would be a play area for children behind the left-field fence.
A concourse would wrap around the field in the grandstand. Fans would be able to watch the game while walking around the park or visiting the concession stands, Ralston said.
A lounge, two corporate party areas and 16 suites would be built above the seats.
Proposed designs include a brick and steel exterior with a distinctive Clippers logo on the stadium’s north side facing I-70.
If commissioners would choose to rebuild Cooper Stadium, construction could present challenges.
Len Moser, of Barton Malow, a construction management firm, said construction would take at least 19 months.
If crews started after the baseball season in September 2005 by tearing down most of the grandstand, about 5,000 of the lower field seats would be retained for the 2006 baseball season. Temporary food stands and portable toilets would have to be used, Moser said.
The park would then be ready by April 2007.
Kilroy said it’s clear the challenge of "building around a baseball season is daunting."
Commissioner Dewey Stokes asked whether a new ballpark could be built elsewhere on the Cooper Stadium grounds.
Ray said that probably would be impossible because the west parking area once was a truck terminal. Federal and state environmental agencies would require the grounds to be cleaned up at a high cost.
Kilroy and Ray said the proposed design presented yesterday was attractive, and if a park was built Downtown, it would probably incorporate many of the same features.
Stokes said what struck him about the Cooper Stadium study is it "went beyond renovating" to building a new park. He said he particularly likes the picnic area behind right field.
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