RTD EXCLUSIVE: Analysts advocate downtown ballpark

Access. Crime. Parking.

Those were concerns Patrick Zohn says he most frequently heard when speaking at public forums before the construction of Toledo's downtown ballpark. The Class AAA Toledo Mud Hens played for decades at suburban Lucas County Recreation Center, but needed a new home. Toledo-area residents expressed to Zohn, a partner with a Cleveland sports-facility consulting firm, their apprehension concerning a downtown baseball venue.

Zohn, of The Gateway Group, helped design and build Fifth Third Field, Toledo's successful downtown ballpark that opened in 2002.

"When [the debate] started about a downtown ballpark, it was like 65-35 against," said Jim Weber, the Mud Hens' play-by-play radio announcer since 1975. "Now, you can't find anyone who will bad-mouth it. People just didn't realize what it would do."

Zohn added that access, crime and parking have not been problems.

"Generally, you'll find that when you build a public-assembly facility like an arena or a convention center or a ballpark in a downtown, that actually these issues go away," he said.

Zohn has been following Richmond's ballpark situation. Go ahead with the $318 million Shockoe Center project and its $60 million ballpark? Rebuild The Diamond, or construct something new on the Boulevard? Those are the options commonly backed.

"It would be a generational mistake to build again at The Diamond site," said Zohn, who has visited Richmond and The Diamond in recent years. "It would be the mistake of history repeating itself. It runs counter to what any responsible firm or entity involved with urban planning would tell you. If you're going to spend money on this type of public-assembly facility, you should do it in the core of your downtown."

The Shockoe Center proposal, which continues to be studied by the city and involves retail, restaurants, hotels and living space in Shockoe Bottom, also is supported by Bryan Bostic, chairman of Richmond Baseball Club LC, which is attempting to purchase a Class AA franchise for Richmond.

"We feel that we have put forward a fantastic revitalization plan that happens to include baseball," he said. "Baseball is the catalyst for growth. It's the engine that makes it happen. Without baseball in the picture, is the Bottom going to develop on its own?"

The Shockoe Bottom proposal's opponents include Charlie Diradour, owner and operator of a Richmond development company and one of four debaters involved in Tuesday's Public Square, organized by the Richmond Times-Dispatch to address the Shockoe Center proposal. Diradour believes baseball belongs on the Boulevard because "You put something where customers are going to buy it," he said Thursday. "In this case, the customers are saying 'Put it where we can get to it.'"

Bostic has stressed through eight months of public discourse that ballpark and city-planning analysts consistently advocate building sports facilities downtown. The Times-Dispatch contacted three ballpark-industry sources unconnected to Bostic or the Shockoe Center developers and asked them about Richmond's ballpark challenge.

• Zohn, from Cleveland, has been involved with the planning and construction of several ballparks and arenas.

• Andrew Zimbalist, a nationally known sports economist, wrote "May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy," and 17 other books, several involving sports economy. He is an economics professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

• Jonathan Fine, who attended Collegiate and worked on The Diamond's grounds crew during the mid-1980s, is a sports business consultant who specializes in facility development. He lives and works in Charlotte.

Zohn recognizes Richmond's situation. Toledo faced similar options: rebuild on or near the footprint of an inadequate stadium outside the city's midsection, or build a ballpark downtown? Toledo built downtown, using abandoned warehouses in the design. Fifth Third Field, in its eighth season, is surrounded by several restaurants, some retail and living space.

"We came in and did something on the order of 100 private interviews with political, business and community leaders to see what would work in their community in terms of an action plan," Zohn said. "Then we held a series of public forums, and almost without fail, the first questions in the public forums were 'What about parking? What about crime? What about access?'

"This was a team that routinely drew between 290,000 and 315,000 [per season]. They were usually [near] the bottom of the International League in attendance. Since 2002, when the ballpark opened, they have averaged 550,000 fans a year. And people love going into downtown now."

Zimbalist prefaced his remarks by stating it was difficult for him to be specific about Richmond's situation because he doesn't know many details. But regarding the possibility of a downtown mixed-use development that includes a ballpark, he said, "If a stadium or arena comes as part of a package, whereby you have auxiliary investment, then the entirety of the project can have a positive effect.

"It's unlikely a stadium by itself is doing that, but if the stadium can sensibly synergize with retail construction or commercial construction, then the whole project itself can be positive. The stadium kind of becomes symbolic as an indicator the area is going to be invigorated, that the city is putting energy and infra-structural spending into making the area work. So the stadium can be kind of a fulcrum that helps to generate the rest of the project."

Phase I of Shockoe Center's plans includes the $60 million ballpark, and more than $100 million of private investment around the ballpark.

Fine is very familiar with Richmond, having lived here, having worked at The Diamond.

"When you look at other cities faced with similar decisions, you can see that most of the time in recent years, other similarly situated cities have chosen to build ballparks and arenas in downtown areas as economic-development drivers," he said. "By and large, they've met with success. It's not a guarantee for success, but it's difficult to argue with the results that have been seen in places like Durham, Sacramento, Indianapolis. It's what we're trying to do here in Charlotte.

"What Richmond really has going for it, in my opinion, is it already has natural amenities and historical amenities to bring people downtown. What it needs further in that area to really drive the development is the hook, is the anchor. You put a ballpark in Shockoe Bottom, it's not like a restaurant or some other business where you say 'Hey, maybe folks will come.'

"You put a ballpark down there and that's 80 times a year when you're going to be generating some sort of foot traffic no matter what. And it's that foot traffic that's really going to drive development for retail and restaurants and so forth."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or .