The Chicago Cubs are prepared to end their affiliation with the Boise Hawks after this season if the short-season Class A baseball team does not improve its stadium situation, Hawks officials said Wednesday.
“That’s not a threat. It’s just a fact,” said former major league all-star and longtime Boise resident Bill Buckner. He was hired by the Cubs to be the Hawks’ new hitting coach.
The Hawks are pushing for construction of a $20 million to $25 million multipurpose sports stadium near Downtown Boise as the answer to their problems with their current home, Memorial Stadium. The team, along with the Better Boise Coalition and the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, held a public “State of the Stadium” event Wednesday.
“We have a sense of urgency. We’re trying to send a signal to the Hawks that we’re serious about getting a new stadium built,” said Marc Johnson, co-chair of the coalition, a local group that came together last summer to advocate for a new stadium.
Though advocates outlined varied uses for the stadium — everything from Hawks’ baseball to high school sports, from minor-league soccer to an outdoor ice rink in the winter for up to 150 dates — they don’t have any firm plans on how to pay for the facility.
“It is a slow process,” said Hawks’ general manager Todd Rahr.
In order to pay for the facility, the Better Boise Coalition is asking the city to approve new urban renewal district boundaries to include two identified potential stadium sites. The move would open up possible funding sources, including a share of property taxes collected in the district.
But Rahr said a local-option tax, a property tax increase or a tax on entertainment venues are not on the table.
The coalition has narrowed its top sites to two: at 27th and Fairview and 30th and Main. Both spots are vacant lots in a part of Boise that could use a revival, Johnson said.
Like Bronco Stadium helped boost the Broadway Avenue area, said Buckner, a new ballpark could be the anchor in a newly renovated 30th Street neighborhood. The city has ambitious plans for the area, which include the nearby whitewater park that will open this spring.
“We recommend that the city and other entities concentrate the next level of analysis on those sites,” Johnson said. “It’s an opportunity for an economic development catalyst.”
Supporters are hoping a private-public funding partnership might also include money from the Greater Boise Auditorium District.
The district, known as GBAD, has about $9 million in a fund that could legally be used to fund a new stadium.
But GBAD has been saving that money collected from hotel room taxes for a new convention center, and the GBAD board voted unanimously in December to use it for a convention center expansion, said Pat Rice, executive director of GBAD’s Boise Convention Centre.
The Hawks pledged between $1.5 million and $3 million toward a new stadium Wednesday. Most of that money, however, would be used for fixtures such as a scoreboard and concession equipment. The Hawks, as Treasure Valley Sports and Entertainment, also have promised to run the facility.
Time, however, is running out to satisfy the Cubs, one of the most recognizable brands in baseball. The Cubs’ affiliation agreement with the Hawks expires this season, and the Cubs have until Sept. 1 to decide if they want to extend it for another two or four years.
“I’m confident we can get significant movement on this thing, if we’re going to get it done at all, by the time the Cubs would have to make a decision,” Rahr said. “If we don’t make significant movement, they’re moving anyway.”
The Boise ownership group is assured of having a team in the short-season Class A Northwest League, even if the Cubs depart. But any other major-league affiliate is likely to have the same concerns about Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1989 and lacks adequate clubhouse space and does not meet government requirements for people with disabilities, Hawks officials said.
League officials could eventually force the team to move out of Memorial Stadium — which could mean going to a new community with an adequate stadium.
“This is about the Hawks,” Rahr said, “not the Cubs.”
Brian Murphy: 377-6444Anna Webb: 377-6431
