El Paso baseball team profits destined for local causes

Click photo to enlarge

A conceptual drawing of the Triple-A baseball stadium to be built in Downtown El Paso provided by city Rep. Cortney Niland.

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MountainStar Sports Group, which is bringing Triple-A minor league baseball to El Paso, will donate its profits from the team operations to local nonprofit groups, officials announced today.

Details of the intended donations were not provided Wednesday, and it was unclear how much of the profits will be donated.

"The money would be given for charitable purposes, and would continue for the foreseeable future," a statement from the group said.

The group has received all but final approval from the Pacific Coast League and Minor League Baseball to bring the Tucson Padres, which are affiliated with the San Diego Padres, to El Paso.

The group's members include local business leaders Paul Foster, Woody Hunt, Joshua Hunt and Alejandra De La Vega Foster. The two families have donated more than $80 million to the community in the past five years alone.

MountainStar members haven't disclosed the team's purchase price or how much it might cost them to operate the ballpark annually.

Some experts have said Triple-A teams sell for an average $20 million and the cost to operate a minor league ballpark averages $1 million to $2 million a year depending on how many and what types of events it hosts.

The City Council on June 26 agreed to build a $50 million baseball stadium if a team was secured by MountainStar. Under the agreement, the stadium will be built where the City Hall and the Insights El Paso Science Center buildings now stand. The buildings

would probably be demolished by February, and the stadium would open by April 2014.

A conceptual design for the Downtown ballpark shows that the five-acre site at City Hall will accommodate the baseball stadium without it being put over the nearby trainway, City Manager Joyce Wilson said in an email to the mayor and the City Council on Wednesday.

Wilson said also that the city is having a traffic study conducted to determine how much the surrounding streets could be narrowed for the

ballpark to maximize land use without affecting traffic in the area.

In the email updating the progress of the ballpark's conceptual work, Wilson said the city has hired Populous Inc. on a $50,000 consulting contract to produce the conceptual designs that establish the "dimensions and elevations of the stadium, as well as its relationship to the surrounding streets and buildings."

The preliminary work, Wilson said, "shows in no uncertain terms" that the stadium fits at the site. The area probably would be bordered by Durango, Missouri and Santa Fe streets and the Union Pacific Trainway. One of the access points to the ballpark would be over the trainway on the stadium's south side.

"The conceptual plans show the ballpark fits comfortably within these bounds, giving us a unique and intimate park and still providing adequate dimensions for the playing field," the email states.

Under the conceptual design, the ballpark would include a 360-degree concourse, program areas for restaurants and concessions, a children's play area and other amenities. The ballpark would feature fixed seating and an open area.

While the demolition of City Hall and Insights are included in the $50 million, city officials have estimated it would cost the average homeowner $5.75 more annually to fund the relocation of city operations if it purchases two other Downtown buildings for about $22 million.

The city is in negotiations to purchase the El Paso Times building and the two parking lots that sandwich it, as well as another building on Texas Avenue. The $22 million and its estimated impact on the taxpayer don't include the cost of the two parking lots, which will probably raise both estimates.

The City Council is expected to discuss and possibly finalize its ballpark contract with MountainStar, as well as the purchase of the El Paso Times building and the other on Texas Avenue, during its Sept. 11 meeting.

Final approval from the Pacific Coast League would come after those final negotiations, officials said.

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at cramirez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_21427685/hunt-foster-families-say-they-will-donate-baseball?source=rss_viewed

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