Avista Stadium, home of the Spokane Indians minor-league baseball club, needs more than $8 million in upgrades in the new few years to remain a viable sports venue, a Spokane County committee has determined.


The county and the Indians are talking about making a couple of those improvements this winter, but will ask the Legislature to step up to the plate and finance the bulk of the work, says Paul Barbeau, the Indians general manager. Ideally, he says, construction would be completed between fall 2005 and spring 2006.


The stadium is not at risk right now, but we want to have the foresight to go through this process before were in a dire situation, Barbeau says. There comes a point some time down the road where the stadium is harder and harder to use.


The committee, called the ballpark viability committee, was formed in January by the county commissioners and includes representatives of the county, sports organizations, and the business community. On Nov. 2, it submitted its findings and a facilities report, prepared by the Spokane architectural firm Denny Christenson & Associates, to the commissioners.


The 7,300-seat ballpark was built in 1958, primarily to serve as the home of the Spokane Indians, which at the time was the triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Indians now play in the Northwest League as a single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.


Currently, according to the ballpark viability committees report, the stadium is the largest of the facilities used by Northwest League ball clubs, but only two of the other seven venuesone in Eugene, Ore., and one in Vancouver, British Columbiaare older than Avista Stadium.


The county and the Indians have made several upgrades to the stadium through the years, but a number of structural improvements are coming due.


Immediate needs


The most immediate needs are two of the smaller-dollar projects: installation of a new scoreboard and resurfacing of the ballparks outer concourse.


Many components of the current electronic scoreboard dont work, and Barbeau says the display is so old that replacement parts cant be found.


It will cost $275,000 to replace the scoreboard either with a new electronic scoreboard or a traditional, manual board in which the numbers are changed by hand. Barbeau says the Indians like the idea of a classic-style manual scoreboard, but an electronic scoreboard might be easier to use for the high school and college teams that play there.


The committee came up with two options to improve the outer concourse. The preferred option involves demolishing the current asphalt surfaces and replacing them with concrete surfaces, Barbeau says. That would cost $376,000, the committees report says.


A less expensive alternative is to put new asphalt on parts of the concourse and reseal other parts. That would cost about $49,000, the report says.


Marshall Farnell, Spokane Countys CEO, says the county commissioners are just starting budget deliberations and will determine in coming weeks whether they will be able to put any 2005 capital improvements into the ballpark.


The Indians have offered to pay for a portion of those upgrades, Barbeau says.


Big-ticket items


The big-ticket projectsthe ones for which the county and the Indians hope to secure state fundinginclude replacing all of the stadiums seats and concrete risers they sit on, creating a pedestrian feature beyond the outfield, and demolishing three stadium buildings to make way for new structures. Those buildings include the main concessions stand, the administration building and ticket office, and a maintenance building.


Replacing the seats and concrete risers would cost about $5 million.


The ballpark viability report also includes a $1.4 million alternative to replace a third of the concrete risers that are most in need of repair. If that option were chosen, the county and Indians also would want to secure an additional $400,000 to remove and replace about 3,500 seats.


As proposed in the report, the outfield pedestrian feature would include construction of a walkway beyond the outfield fence as well as related landscaping.


The 1,800-square-foot main concession stand, built in 1958, would be replaced with a building about twice that size that would include more modern equipment. Cost for that project would be about $980,000.


With a new, larger concession stand, some concession-preparation operations could move there from the administration building.


That building, which is located at the main entrance to the ballpark, currently has 2,900 square feet of floor space, and the Indians 12 year-round employees work out of about half of that building. Construction of a new structure there would cost $640,000, the report says.


Another option would be to spend $450,000 to remodel that building, which essentially would upgrade the entire facility and convert the concession-preparation area into office space.


A $302,000 maintenance building would be built along the north side of the stadiumjust outside of the left-field bleachers. As planned, the new building would include about 2,000 square feet of floor space, almost triple the size of the current maintenance building there.


Eric Sawyer, executive director of the Spokane Regional Sports Commission, says the Legislature should consider funding for the stadium improvements, because the venue serves a broad role within the community.


While known mostly as the home of the Indians, minor-league baseball accounts for less than half of the 100-some events held annually at Avista Stadium. It also hosts American Legion baseball games, and this past spring and summer, Gonzaga Universitys baseball team used it for its home games.


One of the things we want to do is build on that (non-Indians) activity, Sawyer says. It has to be improved to remain a competitive venue.


Barbeau says the committee also looked briefly at the option of building a new stadium on a different site, but such a facility likely would cost around $20 million to construct, not including land costs.


We can invest less than half of that in an existing site with a lot of history, he says. At this point, the much-preferred route is to preserve this facility here.