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Commissioner Wants Studies On Ball Parks

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By JULIA FERRANTE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

With limited funds and growing demands for ball fields, Pasco County officials are looking at new ways to operate parks.

A committee considered bids last month from two recreation consultants that would develop major-league-style ball parks for Pasco.

Big League Dreams and Sportsplex USA submitted proposals for multipurpose sports complexes. The parks typically charge entrance fees but make most of their money from accompanying restaurants and concessions.

"It would be an enterprise fund where the parks would pay for themselves," Parks and Recreation Director Rick Buckman said. "It would be almost like Disney. Disney doesn't make its money on entrance fees. They make their money on the shops, restaurants and hotels."

County Commissioner Michael Cox, who suggested the Tourist Development Council and Pasco parks officials investigate possibilities for a sports complex, plans to ask his fellow board members Tuesday to negotiate with one of the companies to conduct a feasibility study and a management plan.

Big League Dreams in its proposal for a partnership with the county asked for $750,000 to develop the project, plus $450,000 to use the Big League Dreams name. Cox said that's "too high." Sportsplex USA, which builds multipurpose parks, is asking for $350,000. The committee favored Big League Dreams, although its price remains a concern.

"I'm not willing to pay that much," Cox said. "What I'd anticipate is that we would negotiate a contract, and it would be multipart, with a feasibility study to tell us how well a ball park would do and then develop a program to design it ... build it, operate it and maintain it. So it would pretty much be turn key. They'd be our partner all the way to the first pitch."

A feasibility study would show whether the project is viable. "It's got to make sense from a business standpoint," Cox said.

The county committee favored Big League Dreams, but Sportsplex has at least one advantage over its competitor. Because Big League Dreams constructs replica fields that resemble sports parks such as Chicago's Wrigley Field and Boston's Fenway Park, the company has to pay royalties to the sports teams.

Cox plans to suggest to other commissioners that the county retain a consultant to determine the economic impact of a multipurpose sports complex.

The company Impact DataSource recently conducted a similar study of Turbine Diagnostics, a company planning to expand in Pasco. The $3,250 study would show how much the project would bring in from construction fees and new jobs.

"If, by chance, this came back as not that great of an impact, we wouldn't do it," Cox said.

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.

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