New P-Nats stadium pushed back to 2016
http://www.insidenova.com/news/local/woodbridge/new-p-nats-stadium-pushed-back-to/article_e1abda76-5b09-11e3-9cbd-0019bb2963f4.html
Too chilly to think about baseball? Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber doesn’t think so. In fact he’s hoping to announce big news about the P-Nats’ new stadium by the end of the year.
Silber and the Potomac Nationals, the Woodbridge-based minor-league team affiliated with the Washington Nationals, announced plans to build a new 6,000-seat stadium next to Wegmans in back in the summer of 2012.
Last January, Silber said he expected to announce a “naming-rights” deal for the new stadium by April 2013, and hoped to complete the $30 million stadium in time for opening day 2015.
But the April announcement never came. During an update about the stadium delivered to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors Nov. 19, Silber said the project is still on track, although the completion date has now been pushed back to 2016.
What’s holding things up? Plans still hinge on that naming-rights deal, reportedly worth $15 million, which Silber says should be announced soon.
“At the moment, we’re pretty close to concluding an arrangement with a major entity,” Silber said in a recent interview.
The team has already secured smaller sponsorship deals for other parts of the ballpark, including the ground-level entry way, a second-story “club level,” which will feature a fine-dining restaurant open year-round and a third-level “party deck,” which will include a crab shack, beer garden and children’s playground.
“We’ve had just a tremendous response from our marketing people,” Silber said. “[Sponsors] understand the amount of value they can build by working with us.”
There’s a lot at stake for the team. Silber, whose family has owned the Class-A Carolina League Team for 25 years, said the P-Nats current park, the G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, is rated at the bottom of all playing facilities in the league.
The team has been told by league officials they can continue playing at Pfitzner through the 2015 season only if the new stadium is in the works, Silber said.
“If for some reason [the new stadium] did not happen, there could be a real question of the Potomac Nationals continuing in Prince William County, or at least in that stadium,” Silber told the supervisors.
During his presentation, Silber outlined the park’s features and shared several artists’ renderings of the new stadium, which is planned for a wooded, six-acre site located between Wegmans and Opitz Boulevard, downhill from the new apartment buildings. The stadium will run alongside Potomac Center Boulevard, the main road leading to the Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center complex from Dale Boulevard.
The site is situated at a low point of the shopping center’s hilly terrain. As designed, the field and most of the seating will be below-grade, eliminating the need for large-scale, bowl-like stadium walls around the park.
“Basically, the site is a big hole,” Silber explained. “In effect, we’re dropping the ballpark in a big hole.”
The entrance will be “at grade” with most of the regular stadium seating extending below ground level. Above the main seating area, there will be 16 indoor suites, each with seating for 12, as well as the club-style restaurant. The third-story “party deck” (with beer garden, crab shack and playground) will top off the park with views of the Potomac River.
To support the new stadium and provide additional parking for commuters, the Virginia Department of Transportation pledged $15 million in 2012 to build a multiple-deck garage next the new ballpark, near Opitz Boulevard.
Silber said he hopes the parking deck and the stadium’s location, amid one of the “most successful retail centers in Northern Virginia,” will boost attendance at weeknight games -- a challenge at the team’s current site off of Prince William Parkway.
The P-Nats set records for wins and for attendance last season, when they won their division championship. But with the new stadium, Silber hopes to do even better. He envisions commuters leaving their cars in the parking garage in the morning and returning at the end of the day to attend a ball game or eat dinner in the year-round restaurant.
“We think the amenity of being able to have dinner at a fine restaurant, and to be able to look out over a holy temple, which, to me, is a baseball stadium, and to be able to see the Potomac River, is going to work very well,” Silber said.
Silber said he further hopes the stadium can serve as a venue for other events, including concerts, graduations, corporate meetings and weddings. The team is considering turning the infield into an ice rink during the winter and possibly hosting holiday light shows.
“We’ve been looking at what other ball clubs do in other areas,” Silber said. “There is no end to the type of programs we can do as long as they are consistent with what we want to do in the community.”
When plans for the stadium were first presented last year, residents of the nearby Potomac Club townhomes and condominiums raised questions about traffic congestion and noise.
Silber has said there will be additional opportunities for community meetings about the stadium, and county spokesman Jason Grant notes there’s still plenty of time for community input.
Plans for the stadium have yet to be formally presented to the county planning department or reviewed by the Planning Commission – a process Silber said would likely take at least 12 months.
Still, members of the county Board of Supervisors seem ready to move ahead.
“This is truly very, very exciting,” Board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At Large, said after Silber’s presentation to the board. “We are really looking forward to this.”
http://www.insidenova.com/news/local/woodbridge/new-p-nats-stadium-pushed-back-to/article_e1abda76-5b09-11e3-9cbd-0019bb2963f4.html
Too chilly to think about baseball? Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber doesn’t think so. In fact he’s hoping to announce big news about the P-Nats’ new stadium by the end of the year.
Silber and the Potomac Nationals, the Woodbridge-based minor-league team affiliated with the Washington Nationals, announced plans to build a new 6,000-seat stadium next to Wegmans in back in the summer of 2012.
Last January, Silber said he expected to announce a “naming-rights” deal for the new stadium by April 2013, and hoped to complete the $30 million stadium in time for opening day 2015.
But the April announcement never came. During an update about the stadium delivered to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors Nov. 19, Silber said the project is still on track, although the completion date has now been pushed back to 2016.
What’s holding things up? Plans still hinge on that naming-rights deal, reportedly worth $15 million, which Silber says should be announced soon.
“At the moment, we’re pretty close to concluding an arrangement with a major entity,” Silber said in a recent interview.
The team has already secured smaller sponsorship deals for other parts of the ballpark, including the ground-level entry way, a second-story “club level,” which will feature a fine-dining restaurant open year-round and a third-level “party deck,” which will include a crab shack, beer garden and children’s playground.
“We’ve had just a tremendous response from our marketing people,” Silber said. “[Sponsors] understand the amount of value they can build by working with us.”
There’s a lot at stake for the team. Silber, whose family has owned the Class-A Carolina League Team for 25 years, said the P-Nats current park, the G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, is rated at the bottom of all playing facilities in the league.
The team has been told by league officials they can continue playing at Pfitzner through the 2015 season only if the new stadium is in the works, Silber said.
“If for some reason [the new stadium] did not happen, there could be a real question of the Potomac Nationals continuing in Prince William County, or at least in that stadium,” Silber told the supervisors.
During his presentation, Silber outlined the park’s features and shared several artists’ renderings of the new stadium, which is planned for a wooded, six-acre site located between Wegmans and Opitz Boulevard, downhill from the new apartment buildings. The stadium will run alongside Potomac Center Boulevard, the main road leading to the Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center complex from Dale Boulevard.
The site is situated at a low point of the shopping center’s hilly terrain. As designed, the field and most of the seating will be below-grade, eliminating the need for large-scale, bowl-like stadium walls around the park.
“Basically, the site is a big hole,” Silber explained. “In effect, we’re dropping the ballpark in a big hole.”
The entrance will be “at grade” with most of the regular stadium seating extending below ground level. Above the main seating area, there will be 16 indoor suites, each with seating for 12, as well as the club-style restaurant. The third-story “party deck” (with beer garden, crab shack and playground) will top off the park with views of the Potomac River.
To support the new stadium and provide additional parking for commuters, the Virginia Department of Transportation pledged $15 million in 2012 to build a multiple-deck garage next the new ballpark, near Opitz Boulevard.
Silber said he hopes the parking deck and the stadium’s location, amid one of the “most successful retail centers in Northern Virginia,” will boost attendance at weeknight games -- a challenge at the team’s current site off of Prince William Parkway.
The P-Nats set records for wins and for attendance last season, when they won their division championship. But with the new stadium, Silber hopes to do even better. He envisions commuters leaving their cars in the parking garage in the morning and returning at the end of the day to attend a ball game or eat dinner in the year-round restaurant.
“We think the amenity of being able to have dinner at a fine restaurant, and to be able to look out over a holy temple, which, to me, is a baseball stadium, and to be able to see the Potomac River, is going to work very well,” Silber said.
Silber said he further hopes the stadium can serve as a venue for other events, including concerts, graduations, corporate meetings and weddings. The team is considering turning the infield into an ice rink during the winter and possibly hosting holiday light shows.
“We’ve been looking at what other ball clubs do in other areas,” Silber said. “There is no end to the type of programs we can do as long as they are consistent with what we want to do in the community.”
When plans for the stadium were first presented last year, residents of the nearby Potomac Club townhomes and condominiums raised questions about traffic congestion and noise.
Silber has said there will be additional opportunities for community meetings about the stadium, and county spokesman Jason Grant notes there’s still plenty of time for community input.
Plans for the stadium have yet to be formally presented to the county planning department or reviewed by the Planning Commission – a process Silber said would likely take at least 12 months.
Still, members of the county Board of Supervisors seem ready to move ahead.
“This is truly very, very exciting,” Board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At Large, said after Silber’s presentation to the board. “We are really looking forward to this.”