BUNDY COLUMN: Time to get serious about new ballpark

Love baseball? Love having the RedWolves here in Florence?

Then listen up. This might very well be the most important thing you hear about the team this season.

The RedWolves need a new ballpark or a complete overhaul of their current home, Legion Field. And they need it sooner than later.

While the Coastal Plain League has grown very fond of the RedWolves, it has grown weary of the RedWolves’ digs.

From Forest City to Fayetteville to Wilmington to Morehead City, the CPL is increasingly playing in new or renovated yards.

In Florence, though, the CPL plays in one of the worst facilities in the league with a long list of problems.

There are no clubhouses at Legion Field, so visiting teams must dress on the bus. And with no showers at Legion Field, the hours ride back to wherever a team comes from literally stinks.

Umpires dress in the RedWolves’ laundry room alongside the washer and dryer, which can’t be of help when the RedWolves later need a call to go their way.

The concession stand and press box are deficient. Fans must wade through a muddy field of a parking lot with no lighting to get to and from the stadium. And once inside, they must navigate their way up and down small, steep stairways to and from their seats.

It shouldn’t take an inning to buy peanuts and Cracker Jack, nor should watching the boys of summer come at the risk of an ankle or knee injury or a fall.

On the field, the playing surface drains with all the swiftness of a clogged gutter, making rainouts of what would otherwise be a passing summer storm.

And the list goes on and on.

“Most of the teams in the league are now playing in stadiums that have been updated to include many necessities and fan-friendly luxuries that our stadium simply doesn’t have,” says RedWolves owner Kevin Barth. “League officials have hinted to us for years that major renovations need to be made here.

“Unfortunately, their hints are now getting less subtle.”

If Barth’s words aren’t strong enough, there’s this from CPL commissioner Pete Bock:

“(A new or renovated stadium) is vital for the Florence franchise. The facility that the RedWolves currently play in has served its purpose but is tremendously outdated. Without a new facility or a tremendous upgrade to their current facility, the franchise is impacted in a number of different ways.”

Strong words for a franchise that has long been close to the heart of the CPL.

With Barth owning the team and general manager Jamie Young overseeing day-to-day operations, the RedWolves have been embraced by the Florence community.

While the team’s average attendance of 1,316 last summer was down from 1,609 the previous season, it still ranked seventh in the 15-team CPL and 25 th among all summer collegiate teams in the nation.

RedWolves players and coaches are housed by local families. And at the ballpark, the interaction between the team and fans is genuine.

It all makes for one of the CPL’s most successful franchises. League leaders have thought so much of the RedWolves that they awarded Florence the league’s all-star game in 2004 and the Pettit Cup postseason championship tournament in 2007.

But without a new or renovated ballpark, the odds are increasingly against Florence ever hosting major CPL events again.

That’s because the CPL isn’t the fledgling summer collegiate league it once was. Since its inaugural season in 1997, the league has become one of the most highly-regarded in the country.

The number of CPL alumni who have reached the major leagues is more than 30.

Before the Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander tossed two no-hitters in the bigs, he pitched in the CPL.

Before Ryan Zimmerman held down the hot corner for the Washington Nationals, he honed his skills in the CPL.

And 50 or so former RedWolves have played pro ball. Boston Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis and Colorado Rockies third baseman Ty Wigginton are the most notable.

Big-time college players want to play in the CPL, and major-league scouts want to scout them in the CPL.

But, given a choice, neither wants to do so in a has-been ballpark.

“When we hosted the Pettit Cup tournament and the CPL All-Star Game, league officials and team officials mentioned for many years that we set the bar high for these events,” Barth said. “And even though the league knows any event held here would be run first class, it has been made clear to us that our facility is not suitable for a major CPL event any longer.

“It will not accommodate the teams, fans, league officials or professional scouts appropriately, and we certainly don’t have the technology to accommodate the press needs of a major CPL event.”

A ballpark like the one built for the Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls in 2008 would be a boon for the RedWolves.

Forest City, a town of 7,000 residents 65 miles west of Charlotte, constructed a $4.3 million stadium through government and private funding. The stadium boasts 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-x-9 foot video screen.

Surely, Florence – a town with five times the population of Forest City – should be able to pull off a similar project.

“It is our belief that the city of Florence appreciates and understands the economic and social impact that the RedWolves have on their community,” Bock said. “It is with that belief that we expect a commitment to a new facility that will open up many economic opportunities for Florence, such as hosting the CPL all-star event, Team USA and other international teams that come through the CPL, college tournaments, high school tournaments, etc.”

A relatively inexpensive ballpark would fit nicely into Florence’s downtown revitalization effort that has seen millions of government and private dollars poured into projects that are changing the landscape of the inner city.

Imagine the downtown sky being lit up at night by stadium lights and post-game fireworks. Imagine fans coming downtown to catch a game and downtown workers staying downtown on game nights.

The economic and social impact of the RedWolves to Florence would be even greater than it already is.

“I am convinced that a downtown stadium would significantly increase our attendance and would be a big draw to other businesses in the downtown area,” Barth said. “As we have seen in other locations, when new stadiums appear downtown and attendance goes up, restaurants and other businesses tend to follow.”

Not only can a new stadium spark life into a city, it can spike a team’s win totals. In the three seasons since the Owls have played in their new stadium in Forest City, they’ve gone 111-54 for the CPL’s best winning percentage at .673.

“As good as the teams have been in Florence so far, we don’t tend to draw players from all over the country to come play here,” Barth said. “A new stadium would allow us to attract them from everywhere, including the west coast.

“These players and coaches research the teams, the cities and the facilities. And the bottom line is these guys want to play in the newer, nicer stadiums.”

Barth says talks with city leaders about a new ballpark have been “serious” and “in detail” as recent as last year.

A check with the City of Florence Urban Planning and Development office on Friday, though, indicates a ballpark is mentioned in the master plan for downtown development, but isn’t a priority.

Meanwhile, the Coastal Plain League will open its 15 th season on Tuesday full steam ahead.

Here’s hoping Florence and the RedWolves build a new ballpark before we’re thrown from the train.