KMAX: Sports

Fans asked to pick stadium site for Reno baseball team

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. (AP) Leaders of a group trying to bring a minor league baseball team to the Reno-Sparks area are asking local fans to vote on four possible sites for the new stadium, including one in downtown Reno.

The group, Sierra Nevada Baseball, launched a Web site Monday to gauge support for the siting of the 10,000-seat stadium it hopes will house a Triple-A team from the Pacific Coast League by 2005.

PCL President Branch B. Rickey confirmed in November the league wants to bring a team to Reno, where there's been no minor league baseball since 1999.

In addition to downtown Reno, the proposed sites are to the east, along Interstate 80 at the Sparks Marina; to the south, on U.S. Highway 395 at the Mount Rose Highway; and to the west, along Interstate 80 near the Boomtown hotel-casino.

``We're asking the fans where they'd prefer to take their families,'' said Bruce Breslow, an ex-sportscaster and former mayor of Sparks who is serving as the group's marketing director. He said they hope to announce a preferred site by the end of February.

``We are looking at land costs and the physical footprint of the ballpark,'' he said in a statement Monday.

Phil Zive, the group's community relations director, said the four candidate locations were selected partly because of their easy traffic access.

``It must be a safe environment for families and be able to be an anchor for business development around it,'' he said.

The first 130 votes cast on the Web site Monday showed nearly half backing the Sparks location:

Sparks Marina, I-80, 48.9 percent

Downtown Reno, 27.3 percent

Highway 395, Mt. Rose, 14.4 percent

Boomtown, I-80, 9.4 percent

C.J. Jones, the group's managing partner, said Sierra Nevada Baseball is on track to have a franchise agreement in place by the end of the year and begin play in the 2005 baseball season. He said the Web site should help build interest in the effort.

``In the future, the site will allow fans to purchase tickets, check out their team's stats and order merchandise.''

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On the Net:

Sierra Nevada Baseball: www.sierranevadabaseball.com

Pacific Coast League: http://www.pclbaseball.com/index2.php

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