Minor League Stadium proposed in Charlestown

[KentXie]

I like this. This could be another job opportunity for teens like me to work at the stadium.

Bunker Hill baseball?: $45M stadium plan in play
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter

Friday, July 20, 2007 - Updated: 05:36 AM EST

The Hub would get a second major baseball stadium - in Charlestown - under plans being pitched by a high-powered Boston lawyer who wants to bring a minor league team to Boston.

Alexander Bok, former general counsel at top Boston public relations firm Rasky Baerlein, has launched a campaign to win neighborhood support for a proposed $45 million, state-of-the-art minor league stadium.

The 6,000-seat ballpark would become home to a new, minor league team that would compete in the Atlantic League, an independent league with franchises in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania that is not affiliated with Major League Baseball .

Bok and his business partners, including a former Brockton mayor, showed off renderings and plans to a crowd of about 100 Charlestown residents and leaders earlier this week at a meeting held at the Knights of Columbus hall.

Bok is also taking his case to the state?s Division of Capital Asset Mangement, which oversees state-owned land such as the Bunker Hill Community College campus. Bok wants to build the new stadium complex on five to 10 acres next to Bunker Hill?s main academic complex - state land now used for college athletic fields.

But Bok?s proposal faces challenges. The would-be ballpark builder and his fellow investors, including some top venture capitalists, come to Charlestown only after having ruled out other sites.

Bok first floated plans to build the ballpark in Dorchester on land controlled by the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Boston College High, only to see that plan get a lukewarm reception.

Likewise, the Bunker Hill board of trustees recently rejected his initial overtures, concerned the ballpark would take up valuable land needed for future expansion.

?We believe the program as submitted with us isn?t consistent with the mission of the college,? said Jean Marie Boylston, chairwoman of the board of trustees.

But Bok says Charlestown is the right location for his ballpark and team, near both the Orange Line and Interstate 93.

He said he hopes to win over Bunker Hill trustees, who have not seen his full proposal, with pledges of jobs for students and even an ownership stake in the stadium. The college could also use the facilty for its own sports programs, including the Bunker Hill baseball team, he said.

Bok said the new team and stadium would offer local families a chance to watch ballgames at old-fashioned prices, with tickets in the $5 to $12 range.

?This is affordable family entertainment,? Bok said. ?The idea is you can take a family of four and spend $100.?

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

This is a great idea. I loved going to Lowell Spinners games, and to have it so close. Hell, it will even be next to a T stop so traffic won't be that bad.

 

[palindrome]

Cool.

 

[kz1000ps]

Looking to residents to step up to the plate

By Patrick McGroarty, Globe Correspondent | July 22, 2007

A group that has worked for several years to build a minor league baseball stadium in Boston is now considering a site in Charlestown on land controlled by Bunker Hill Community College, even though the school's board of trustees has already voted against the proposal.

The group, Boston Baseball Field of Dreams, made its pitch for a 6,000-seat, $50 million minor league stadium at a public meeting in Charlestown last Wednesday.

"As you all know, you're here because we had a bump in the road with Bunker Hill," Alex Bok, president of Field of Dreams, said to a crowd of more than 70 Charlestown residents that consisted mostly of stadium supporters. "We're seeking an opportunity for people to hear our presentation and hear what we're doing," he said.

Since 2005, Bok has been trying to build a stadium and establish a Boston baseball franchise that would compete in either the Atlantic or Canadian-American independent minor leagues. In an interview last week, Bok said his group had informally discussed plans for the stadium with Mary L. Fifield, president of the college, but had not made a formal presentation to the trustees before they voted in late June against bringing the stadium to campus.

"We were very surprised," said Bok.

"We had understood the process was we would get them a formal proposal and then we would come and make a presentation." He is hoping that community support for the project might prompt the board to hear a formal presentation on the stadium in August or September, and then reconsider their vote.

Jeanne-Marie Boylan, chairwoman of the board of trustees, said trustees voted against the stadium because it "is not consistent with the mission of the college."

Boylan said the stadium is "a private development, and would prevent any expansion for academic reasons on the site." But she added, "If we received more interest from the developers, from residents of Charlestown, we would be happy to take that under consideration."

The meeting last Wednesday was called by Tom Cunha, who served on the college's board of trustees from 1993 to 2005 as a representative of the Charlestown community. Cunha voiced frustration that the college had not consulted the community before voting on the proposal.

"I would just like them to be a neighbor, and to share with their other neighbors what their rationale is before deciding without giving their neighbors an opportunity to at least view" the plan, said Cunha.

The land in question -- parking lots just south of the John F. Gilmore bridge and east of the Orange Line -- is owned by the state and controlled by the college.

If the board declines to take a second vote or rejects a formal proposal, Bok said his group will turn its attention to several alternative sites in or near the city.

Field of Dreams has previously proposed building the stadium at Boston University and on Columbia Point in Dorchester, and has been focused on the Charlestown site for about six months.

Last week, Bok said multiple sites in Dorchester were still under consideration, and added that Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has suggested several stadium sites in that city.

But the Charlestown site, said Bok, is especially appealing because of its proximity to I-93 and the Orange Line.

Construction would be privately financed, and organizers plan to generate significant revenue through naming rights. The stadium design is likely to resemble that of Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo. Field of Dreams members have made trips to Hammons and are working with its architectural firm, Pelham Phillips of Springfield.

While people at last Wednesday night's meeting largely supported the proposal, there are concerns about the traffic that the stadium would draw during the 70 home games each season.

"I'm generally in support of this, but the traffic problem would need to be solved," said Bill Galvin, a member of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council.

Bok said he believes existing parking spaces at lots that serve the community college and offices across Rutherford Avenue could handle the 1,300 cars expected during home games.

He also suggested that the stadium would be an economic boon for Charlestown, as well as a facility that the college could use as a home field for its athletic teams.

"The college has lots of stakeholders and they move very precipitously," said Bok, "and we think we can persuade them to reconsider, and we think we will persuade them to reconsider."

? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

[czsz]

It wouldn't be long...

Field of dreams or rude awakening?
July 30, 2007

I CHOSE to live in Charlestown because of the quality of life, historic setting, and sense of community. However, I am concerned about the proposed baseball stadium that was the subject of your July 24 "Short Fuse" editorial, "Baseball: Field of impossible dreams." There has been no public process concerning how a stadium and its 6,000 nightly visitors would affect a neighborhood already choked with traffic. Furthermore, promoting a huge venue that would sell alcohol does not sound like a great community benefit to me. Perhaps the private developers should try to take the pulse of the community at large rather than that of a few chosen supporters.

LINDSEY GAROFALO
Charlestown

I'm sorry, Lindsey, you'll need a bit more of your own support before you can self-appoint yourself the "pulse of the community".

 

[Ron Newman]

I'd like to see it built, but isn't it up to Bunker Hill Community College to decide whether they want to give up their athletic fields? I could certainly understand BHCC saying "no".

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

But if BHCC could negotiate use of the stadium for athletic facilities then I can only see this as a great boon for the school and the city.

 

[Ron Newman]

Then my question would be how easily the stadium could be used for sports other than baseball. Presumably the college's current fields accommodate a number of other sports.

 

[palindrome]

I really think this will be a great project! I would love to be able to attend a baseball game for less than the cost of my right nut.

Has anyone seen the new twins stadium. I love it (albeit not even close in size/capacity to this project)


If this doesn't work out, what about the area's other colleges? I know BC is hopefully going to be building a new baseball stadium. It's got the butt end of the b line right next door. The only problem is that Nimby's heads would explode at even the idea.

Where does BU/northeastern play? College baseball is so mysterious compared to the other 3 big college sports.

 

[kz1000ps]

BU doesn't have baseball -- only softball, and they play on their field two blocks west of Nickerson Field. Northeastern plays on Parsons Field in Brookline, just west of the Longwood Medical Area.

On another note, how are they going to fit a 6,000 person stadium on those parking lots? For something of that size, you'll need at least a 4 acre square - roughly 420 x 420 feet (har har cough cough) - to contain everything, although 500 x 500 is more ideal, and this is what the site has to offer at its deepest point:

340 feet if you're lucky, and it only gets skinnier from there. I mean, this is baseball, not softball -- you need a 400 ft-deep field in at least some spots!

I don't doubt that the architects and engineers have figured things out, but I'm quite curious to see the site plan for this project.

 

[Ron Newman]

Bok wants to build the new stadium complex on five to 10 acres next to Bunker Hill?s main academic complex - state land now used for college athletic fields.

Not the parking lots. Different site, further north. Still seems like a tight fit.