A stadium for concerts, snow sledding — and yes, baseball — in downtown Modesto?
Some influential local business people are taking steps to explore a new baseball stadium in downtown Modesto that could host other big events, like snow sledding, ice skating, concerts, and expositions.
The private group pooled $75,000 of their own money to hire an architect who will produce drawings and preliminary plans for what could be a new home to the Modesto Nuts, our beloved minor-league team.
My column a couple of weeks ago confirmed that the Nuts and City Hall have been approached. I didn’t have much to go on at the time, but the piece smoked out Dale Boyett, who provided the above information along with a heavy layer of enthusiasm.
“In the last (few) weeks, it’s taken off and now has a life of its own, ” Boyett told me. “Once we have plans in hand to show the city and (Stanislaus) county and residents, you’re all going to be really excited.”
That could be as soon as October, said Boyett of Modesto-based Boyett Petroleum.
“You get renderings so you can take them to whoever and say, `Here’s what we’ve got cooking,’” said Dan Chapman. He now is CEO of the YMCA in San Joaquin County, and previously was general manager for the Stockton Ports and President of the Stockton Thunder, whose minor-league stadium and hockey arena was designed to help revive downtown Stockton.
Boyett told me others on his Modesto exploratory committee. I’m not naming them because they haven’t yet given permission, but I assure you, they are known, they are successful and they are heavy hitters in the community. These are not the kind of people who fool around.
The Nuts — a Seattle Mariners affiliate — are represented on the committee, Boyett said, and their general manager for my July 28 column confirmed a commitment to keeping baseball “healthy and thriving in Modesto.”
It’s still far too early to pass judgment. We don’t know any particulars, because the group doesn’t yet have them.
“We don’t even have a name,” Boyett said. “Somebody joked about `Random Citizens for a Downtown Modesto Multipurpose Venue.’ We don’t want a name yet. We want to see where the process takes us.”
Any such process can be expected to seek public funding. I’m holding off on an opinion until we know how much they want, and what taxpayers can expect in return. No government money has been used so far.
I’m a sports fan, appreciate Modesto’s 75-year relationship with minor-league ball, and have many fond memories of Nuts games — my son worked for them two summers during high school, a few years ago. But I’m worried about declining attendance, which has steadily dropped since 2011.
Modesto: More than baseball
“So many other things could be done” besides baseball, Boyett said.
The architect recently spent two meetings with the exploratory group, each lasting two hours, Boyett said and showed them real-life examples of what similar stadiums elsewhere offer.
Among them:
- TD Ameritrade Park in 2011 replaced a historic ballpark in Omaha, Neb. and now hosts the College World Series and nearby Creighton University’s baseball team. It cost $128 million and turned a $5.6 million profit in its first year, The Omaha World-Herald reported.
- Parkview Field in 2009 replaced a historic ballpark in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for the minor-league TinCaps, a San Diego Padres affiliate, and has hosted hundreds of other events ranging from fitness festivals and rock and country concerts to weddings and business parties. The park is driving a downtown resurgence, BallParkDigest.com says.
- San Diego’s Petco Park has trucked in 50 tons of snow for sledding. “If San Diego can do snow, we can here” in Modesto, Boyett said.
Modesto’s downtown master plan, approved last year, envisions a ballpark southeast of 10th and F streets where Burnside Body Shop is. Former City Councilwoman Stephanie Burnside declined to comment because her company is embroiled in an eminent domain lawsuit with the city over the Highway 132 bypass project a few blocks away. The company disputes the amount of money offered by the government to buy another Burnside workshop there, where Kansas Avenue meets Franklin Street just east of Highway 99.
Some liked the thought of a ballpark replacing the county courthouse and jail at I and 11th streets when a new courthouse sprouts a few blocks to the west in a few years. But that block is just too small, Boyett said.
Stadium could follow Gallo model
Boyett recently left the governing board at the Gallo Arts Center, across the street from the courthouse site. Boyett envisions a new stadium functioning much like the Gallo — privately managed and leased out to the Nuts, as the Gallo leases to its resident companies including the Modesto Symphony Orchestra and Central West Ballet.
The Gallo’s bread and butter are relatively small, indoor shows without food, and should not compete with a stadium drawing much larger crowds with lots of food and drink. If anyone is worried about competition, it might be the Fruit Yard Amphitheater east of town — whose outdoor concert lineup this year includes Rick Springfield, Foreigner, and Dustin Lynch — and maybe the Nuts’ current home in west Modesto, John Thurman Field.
The Nuts and their predecessors, the Modesto A’s and Modesto Reds, have played at John Thurman Field for 75 years. It was renovated in 1997 for $4.2 million, almost all from city taxpayers despite misgivings from some city leaders at the time who saw it as a lopsided deal.
Although the $47 million Gallo center depends on an endowment and other private funding, remember that it sits on land donated by the county, a contribution valued at $15 million when erected in 2007, and the county owns the building. And the city waived construction fees, another gift of $161,000 in public money.
I’ve said that a new stadium’s benefits must be weighed against the cost to taxpayers, and I’m sticking to it.
So let’s see what Boyett’s group comes up with in October — a time that’s often either magical or heartbreaking for baseball fans.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 4:00 AM with the headline "A stadium for concerts, snow sledding — and yes, baseball — in downtown Modesto?."
