If you build it, will they come?
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/60144/
BENTONVILLE — The newest dream of the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission is already drawing a plethora of sports metaphors.
Field of Dreams.
Hitting a home run.
Even a steroid reference because of the project’s size.
While some on the commission are already treating the possible construction of a 30- to 40-acre Big League Dreams ballpark as a grand slam, Convention and Visitors Bureau President Kalene Griffith knows the city hasn’t even stood up off the bench yet.
Neither the Convention and Visitors Bureau nor the commission is in a position to undertake the project without a number of approvals, most notably those of Big League Dreams and the City Council, Griffith said.
Commissioners recently visited a Big League Dreams complex in Mansfield, Texas, and after learning it draws an estimated 400, 000 visitors per year, commissioners have become cheerleaders for the idea of bringing the organization to Bentonville.
There is one obstacle that could rain out the project before any of the action starts: Benton County is dry.
Big League Dreams, Griffith reported, expects to sell alcohol at the facility, should it ever be built. As a result of the contracts the organization seeks to sign, the city would be constructing a facility where alcohol is to be sold.
Bentonville would be expected to build the facility, the cost of which Griffith estimated at $ 24 million. It would include six to eight ball fields, a batting cage, a restaurant and an indoor events center. Big League Dreams would then be responsible for operations and maintenance for the facility, Griffith said.
But if the city built the facility, essentially making it a city park, Commissioner Paul Nelson wanted to know if alcohol sales would still be allowed.
Nelson said he still wants to pursue the idea of the ballpark but added that the city needs to be ready to find other options.
“ If we can’t get Big League Dreams, we can go out and do it ourselves, ” he said. “ I know that we can’t do what they can do (through marketing ), but I think we can do something close. ”
Several commissioners compared the park to private businesses, including Nelson’s Cafe Rue Orleans, which are allowed to sell alcohol because they are private clubs, but Nelson reminded them there is nothing private about a city-owned facility.
Griffith has several locations in mind for the ballpark. She said it would attract restaurants, hotels and other commercial businesses, especially to the area directly surrounding the sports facility. In addition to the potential of additional sales-tax revenue, the city could also benefit from a revenue-sharing agreement with Big League Dreams, depending largely on that facility’s annual revenue, Griffith said.
Whatever the city does, Commissioner Kim Eason noted the need to move quickly. The city of Rogers, she said, is already putting money into its parks. During its meeting Tuesday, the Rogers City Council approved a $ 2. 3 million allocation to fund construction of two baseball fields and two softball fields at Veterans Park.