Baseball stadium downtown could be big boost

In a recent visit to the Morning News, Florence Mayor Frank Willis mentioned the former Bush Recycling Center site in downtown might be considered for a new baseball stadium where the Florence RedWolves would play their home games.

In a Jan. 26 Morning News story, Florence County/Municipal Planning Commission chairman and Florence City Council candidate Glynn Willis said he supports a study to determine whether Florence could have a stadium at the former Bush Recycling Center site.

Whether it’s the former Bush Recycling Center site or another downtown site, we feel a new stadium for the RedWolves should be seriously considered sooner than later.

The RedWolves, a wooden-bat summer collegiate team, opened their 11th season in the Coastal Plain League on Wednesday night. Tonight, the RedWolves are scheduled to play their 2008 home opener at Legion Field, which has been their home since their inception.

In a 50-50 partnership the past six years, Florence city and county governments have put more than $100,000 toward improvements at Legion Field. Private donations also have been used for improvements. The facility is greatly improved from what it used to be, but it’s still lacking.

A stadium like the one opening for the Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls tonight would be a boon for the RedWolves, their fans and Florence’s revitalization efforts.

Forest City, a town of 7,000 residents 65 miles west of Charlotte, has a new $4.3 million stadium paid with government and private funding. The stadium has 2,000 box and general admission seats, grass berms for additional seating, home and visitor clubhouses with showers and coaches offices, an umpire room, modern concession stands and restrooms, and a scoreboard with a 15-by-9 foot video screen.

Forest City Owls assistant general manager Denise Holland says the team has sold out all box seats, 200 general admission seats and about 200 10-game packs for the 2008 season.

“(Baseball in a nice ballpark) is a form of entertainment that the people of Forest City no longer have to leave town to see.”

Baseball fans in Florence, a town with five times the population of Forest City, should be able to say the same.

The RedWolves have consistently been near or in the top five in Coastal Plain League attendance. Last summer, they averaged 1,283 fans. In 2006, they set a franchise record with an average of 1,492.
Coastal Plain League leaders have thought so much of the RedWolves that they awarded Florence the league’s all-star game and the Petitt Cup postseason championship tournament.

Construction of a stadium would bring fans downtown, keep workers in the city on game nights and give Florence more opportunities to host baseball events.

Florence’s downtown revitalization effort has seen millions of government and private dollars poured into wonderful projects that are truly changing the landscape of our inner city. A relatively inexpensive baseball stadium would be a great fit in all that.