The Orange County Flyers are looking to build a stadium in downtown Fullerton as part of a bid to keep the minor league baseball team in the county.
The Flyers, part of the independent Golden League, have proposed building a stadium at Fullerton’s Amerige Park, already home to a field used for youth baseball and soccer.
The team now plays home games across town at California State University, Fullerton’s Goodwin Field.
A proposed stadium at Amerige Park could cost $20 million to $30 million, seat 4,500 fans and be privately financed, said Bob Young, one of the Flyers’ managing partners and the team’s point man for the project.
The plan calls for fixing up Amerige Park’s current field with temporary locker rooms before eventually replacing it with a new stadium.
The proposal is designed to keep the financially struggling Flyers in the city, according to Young.
“We think Fullerton is a great baseball town,” he said. “We’ve made inroads in terms of establishing our brand. But it’s an expensive operation.”
The team’s owners, who range from Hollywood types to lawyers and accountants, have lost $2 million since buying the Flyers in 2007.
Right now, a big chunk of revenue goes toward lease payments to Cal State Fullerton. Owning a stadium would bring in new sources of revenue for the Flyers, according to team officials.
The team is looking at all options and could end up moving if it can’t get a stadium, according to Young.
“We have to protect our asset and our investors,” he said. “We’re in discussions with numerous municipalities within the state as well as out of the state, just in case.”
Honolulu, Palm Springs, Long Beach, Las Vegas or another West Coast city are potential sites for the team, according to owners.
The Flyers also are negotiating a return to Cal State Fullerton next season as a backup, Young said.
The team, which finished second in its division for the season that ended in September, has a small but loyal following.
The Flyers draw 800 to 900 fans a game at Goodwin Field, which puts them in the middle of attendance in the 10-team Golden League.
By comparison, Cal State Fullerton’s champion Titans team draws about 1,900 people per game to the 3,500-seat stadium.
The Flyers and the city are “very close” to finishing an exclusive negotiating pact that would give the City Council time to study the details of the stadium proposal, Young said.
A review of a preliminary draft is set to take place next month, said Joe Felz, director of parks and recreation for the city.
“Once we have a draft that everyone’s comfortable with, we’d probably be in front of the City Council in December or January,” Felz said. “We’re going to have at least two new council members because of elections, so we have to get council members up to speed on a lot of projects.”
History
Built in 1934, Amerige Park is the oldest baseball field in continuous use in the county. Minor league teams held spring training there until 1962. The Titans played at Amerige Park in 1991 while Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field was being built.
Now the field is a home for youth baseball and soccer. The Pony League World Series took place there in August.
The park is in the heart of Fullerton’s downtown, which has seen a rush of restaurants and bars open in the past decade and is one of the county’s busiest urban hubs.
Since Amerige Park is on city land, any deal to build a stadium would have to include provisions that make the facility available to community groups.
“We would have no intention of selling it,” Felz said. “In general, (the stadium) has to be an improvement that maintains or increases recreational assets for the city.”
An exclusive negotiating pact is expected to address a short-term lease, which would involve temporary improvements to Amerige Park, as well as a long-term lease.
The city now has long-term leases with two businesses on city land, the Summit House Restaurant and the Meridien Sports Club, both near Cal State Fullerton.
The Flyers have hired New York-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC to secure initial financing for a stadium through bonds.
Mintz Levin (which has no relationship to Alan Mintz, president and chairman of the team’s holding company, Fullerton Flyers LLC) helped the New York Yankees get funding for the new Yankee Stadium.
Long term, the team is looking to make money off development around a stadium. The Flyers would use revenue from developments to pay off the stadium’s construction costs and service its debt.
“We don’t want this to cost the city anything,” Young said. “I think this facility can be built privately, provided we have the opportunity to build supportive commercial development with it.”
The city still needs to figure out whether the proposal can work, according to Felz.
“We’ve seen other models of minor league ballparks in urban areas,” he said. “Sometimes, they can be a great fit. Sometimes, they’re not as dynamic as people would hope. We’re optimistic. But we’re also not delusional.”
The project could generate revenue for the city, according to Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead.
“Our downtown area is extremely active, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights,” he said. “I would think the Flyers would bring more people into the downtown area on other nights, which certainly would be good for business.”
Bankhead called the proposal “a beautiful concept.”
“Other than that, I haven’t come to any decision or conclusion. I have to see the whole picture,” he said.
D’Hippolito is a freelance sports writer who lives in Fullerton.
