BUILDING A MINOR LEAGUE FRANCHISE : Camarillo Investors Nailing Together a Team With Words

They say that sports and politics don’t mix.

The situation in Camarillo is a prime example.

Two former major league baseball players and a retired mortician have been trying since March to bring a minor league baseball team to Ventura County.

The three courted the Camarillo City Council with documents that promised prosperity and prestige to a town accepting the team. More concretely, they also talked about attracting media, jobs and tax revenues.

And the politicians have listened.

Ken McMullen, Jim Colborn and Jim Biby have had everyone’s ear. But what they really need is their money.

A feasibility study unveiled Tuesday may help the cause.

The report, compiled by the Harrison Price Co. of Los Angeles, indicates that the Camarillo area has a widening population base and two attractive sites for a future multipurpose stadium. It also shows that the stadium could make money--lots of it--if managed well.

There was a time when McMullen, Colborn and Biby might have been happy just knowing that. But what they need most now is what they needed four months ago: a commitment.

Camarillo has still not decided whether its taxpayers want to pay for, and operate, the stadium.

The Camarillo City Council will receive the feasibility study either Aug. 28 or Sept. 11. The council rejected a proposal to fund the project in April by a 4-1 vote, complaining that it lacked enough information. A Community Stadium Commission was formed to study the proposal.

Since then, the commission has received an offer from Ag Land Services, a group of Camarillo landowners, which has offered $500,000 and 20 acres to help build a stadium. Their offer is contingent, however, on the rezoning of those 20 acres--plus an adjacent 138 acres--from agricultural use to industrial. The land is bordered to the north by Flynn Road, to the east by Lewis Road and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, and to the south by Las Posas and Upland roads.

Rezoning could not be done this year, however, because it would be considered a change in the city’s General Plan. Cities are limited to four changes a year by the state, and Camarillo has already used its allotment.

That one hitch has delayed all other plans.

Said Dr. DeeWayne Jones, chairman of the stadium commission: “If we had the money and the land, we’d have a stadium.”

Meanwhile, time becomes more and more of a factor.

The owners have set Camarillo a Sept. 15 deadline. A commitment must be made by then, they say, for construction to start in time to have a facility--either temporary or permanent--ready by April, 1986, when the California League schedule begins.

Biby, who formerly owned the Skillian-Biby Mortuary in Santa Paula, said the owners will consider other options if no agreement can be reached with Camarillo authorities by then.

“We haven’t ruled any options out,” he said. “We can go back to Lodi for a year, but who would support us? We’d have a lame duck situation. If we’re going to lose money the first year, we might as well lose it down here where we want to stay.”

Biby said that three other cities in Southern California have expressed interest in giving the team a home. He would not elaborate, but it was learned that one of those cities is Oxnard, Camarillo’s neighbor to the northwest.

Oxnard was considered a strong candidate in April before talks between the group of owners and the city broke off.

“They wanted personal financial statements from all of us and they were talking twice the rent we could pay,” Biby said. “We were far, far apart.”

Herbie White, director of Oxnard’s Parks and RecreaTion Department, said that the city never pursued the team. “We were looking into the construction of a facility they could use,” White said. “The city council eventually voted no on a plan to build such a facility at a cost in excess of $2 million.”

White has prepared another report for the council to consider, however. “This report deals with the fact that the city of Oxnard simply needs a larger facility than the 1,600-seat auditorium that it has,” White said. “This facility could be the site of a summer concert series, swap meets, whatever. If those facilities would also be acceptable to baseball, then great.”

Said Biby: “We haven’t ruled out any of our options, but we’re running out of time no matter which way we turn.”

White said that even if the owners turned to Oxnard, a satisfactory facility probably couldn’t be ready for next year.

“The city budget has already been approved and a baseball facility wasn’t a part of it,” White said.

As he listened to an update on the situation in Camarillo and Oxnard, Joe Gagliardi, president of the California League, leaned back in his chair and smiled as if he had heard a similar story before.

He has.

At one time or another, Gagliardi has been the owner of California League franchises in San Jose, Salinas, Modesto, Rohnert Park and Stockton. He has been president of the league since 1982.

“I’m familiar with the problems,” Gagliardi said in an interview at his San Jose office. “I’ve dealt with that kind of bureaucracy before so I know what they’re going through.

“Having a professional baseball team is an idea attractive to many cities, but there are many factors to consider. Financially, having a team and a nice stadium can be a real benefit, but it’s just like any other business venture--it takes money to make money and the people you’re working with have to be willing to make the same commitment and gamble that you are.”

For that reason, Gagliardi predicts that there will be no minor league baseball team in Camarillo in 1986.

“The league’s position at this point is that there is no Camarillo franchise,” Gagliardi said. “The franchise Ken McMullen’s group owns is in Lodi. If McMullen’s group wants to move the franchise, they can bring that proposal up for a vote before the league board. Until the league can be shown there is something (in Camarillo), we can’t even consider the option. What we have there is a town that doesn’t have any facilities. No stadium, no lights--just some apparent interest in having a team.”

Biby said that a temporary baseball facility could serve as a base for the permanent stadium, but the cost could run as high as $500,000.

Even if an agreement is reached and a temporary facility can be built in time for the 1986 season, however, there is a lot of work to be done.

There is the problem of securing a player-development contract from a major league organization. And there are season tickets to sell, employees to hire and advertising to buy and sell.

Owners of other California League teams say McMullen & Co. have only just begun to sweat.

Sally Holshouser bought the majority ownership of the league’s Rohnert Park franchise in March knowing that the the team had lost a “substantial” amount of money in each of the previous two years.

Her plan was to make a profit by capitalizing on a few tricks she had learned while working in the San Diego Padres’ accounting department for three years.

Holshouser, who is also the team’s general manager, figured there was some fat to be trimmed off the team’s operating budget, and she was right. She didn’t realize that she would have to become a concessions stand expert to do it.

“If you don’t know how to cook hot dogs, you’ll never survive in the minor leagues,” she said--only half kidding--while sitting in her office a few hours before a game.

“An awful lot of money can be wasted in the concessions stand simply because people don’t know how to operate one smoothly. How do you make all the popcorn seeds pop so you don’t waste any? There’s a trick to everything, and unless I know those tricks I’ll never know if we’re wasting too much.”

The long hours don’t end with the season, either.

“The name of the game is selling before the season starts,” said Harry Steve, general manager of the San Jose Bees. “If you’re going to make money on this level, you need to sell your fence signs and your program ads. There are so many things that have to be done away from the baseball to run a successful, money-making franchise in this league.”

Such as: the organization of promotion and giveaway nights, the hiring of game personnel, batboys and concessions workers, the ordering of bats, balls and other assorted equipment for the players and the buying and storing of food.

Said Steve: “You do a little bit of everything. It’s a way of life.”

McMullen, who lives in Camarillo, knows there is little he can do as time ticks away.

“It’s kind of out of our hands at this point,” he said. “I’m not satisfied that we’ve been moving so slowly, but when you get tangled up in politics I guess you have to expect to have setbacks.

“This waiting game has made everything a little bit tougher. The fact is, when we finally do get going we’re really going to have to move fast.”

McMullen, who played with the Dodgers and Angels during a 14-year major league career, said he has not even tried to reach an agreement on a player-development contract with a major league organization because he has very little to offer.

“If we do reach a working agreement with a team it will be with the understanding that we might have to play our games at a temporary place,” he said. “They will just have to bear with us for a year.”

An alternative to playing at a temporary facility would be a one-year return to Lodi.

“We would rather play here, but if no site is available, we will have no choice,” McMullen said. “The league won’t let us sit out another year.”

The rights to the Lodi franchise became available when owner Michele Sprague of Stockton lost her player-development contract with the Chicago Cubs in 1984. She was unable to sign a working agreement with another major league club, so Lodi does not have a team this season.

That left the California League with teams from Bakersfield, Fresno, Salinas and Visalia in its southern division, and Rohnert Park, Modesto, Reno, San Jose and Stockton in the northern division. Each team will play between 143-146 games this season because of the odd number of teams in the league.

Said Gagliardi: “It’s a bad situation, having nine teams. The farm directors have been after me to get a tenth team in the league to even the schedule out. That’s why I can say we will have 10 teams next year whether or not one of them is in Camarillo.

“If they don’t want to play in Lodi, we would have to find (an owner) who did.”

In March, when McMullen, Colborn and Biby first announced their intentions of moving the Lodi franchise to Ventura County, Gagliardi said he was in favor of the plan. He says he still is.

“I would be happy to have them there,” Gagliardi said. “It’s a very bold move on their part, but this league is not against there being a team in that area. I’ve been pushing for that area because I think minor league ball would go over big there. Four years ago I went down there and was turned on. I said if there was one place that I’d like to see the league go it was in that area.”

Gagliardi would not set a deadline for the moving of the franchise but he did say that the league would not hold up the implementation of its schedule.

“The pressure is on them, not the league,” Gagliardi said. “We have our annual board meeting Nov. 16. That’s all I can say other than that right now we plan to begin scheduling with Lodi as one of the 10 teams in the league. Until I see something in writing, that’s where their team is.

“I feel this group is very sincere, organized and on top of things. They would be an asset to this league, but there are many stumbling blocks ahead.”

Shortly after McMullen’s group obtained the option to buy the Lodi franchise, it tried to prepare for obstacles by setting a May 1 deadline for an agreement with the Camarillo.

The city had to agree to finance the stadium project by then, or the group would not exercise its option.

In April, McMullen said: “We certainly wouldn’t want to make an investment like that without some sort of written agreement that we’re going to have a park.”

But on May 15 they did just that, buying the rights to the team from Sprague for $125,000, sans commitment.

Said Biby: “We’re going ahead on blind faith.”

Whether that faith was well placed is debatable.

The notion of having a multipurpose stadium and a professional baseball team based in Camarillo have been fairly well received by the community. A petition in favor of the project gathered almost 9,000 signatures in the town of 37,797 people.

McMullen and Biby said they have received about 120 requests for season tickets, although they aren’t for sale yet.

Apparently, enthusiasm still abounds.

But are those same people enthusiastic enough to accept the responsibility of paying for a stadium with an estimated cost of $3,145,000?

Jones, the chairman of the stadium committee, says that with two zoning changes, Camarillo could have a first-class stadium with little if any cost.

“If we could get the 20 acres and $500,000, we could use the money to start construction of the stadium and either sell or take a loan against the land to fund the rest,” Jones said.

Tony Boden, Camarillo’s planning director, says there is no chance of a zoning change before next year. “The state prohibits any more than four,” Boden said. “They could start the wheels turning in that direction this year, but there could be no action until 1986.”

Dave White, vice president of Ag Land Services, said his company would not donate the land and money on a mere promise of a zoning change. “It’s simply not feasible,” he said. “We would certainly like to do that, but we would have to pay off notes to make the donation and we couldn’t do that without the zoning change.”

The Harrison Price study found two good sites for the Camarillo stadium:

--The intersection of South Central Avenue and U.S. 101

--Freedom Park, which is south of Camarillo Municipal Airport between Central Avenue and Las Posas Road.

The South Central Avenue site is west of the street and immediately south of the Ventura Freeway. It was the No. 1 choice of the Harrison Price Co. because of its easy access to U.S. 101 and its distance from residential areas.

“It is clearly an outstanding site,” said Larry Prehn of Harrison Price. “Freedom Park is also very outstanding and would be a very fine site, but the access is not quite as good.”

Another advantage to the South Central Avenue site is its size: 140 acres. Not all of the land would be needed for the stadium and its parking, but at Freedom Park construction would be limited to 20 acres: 5.5 for the stadium and 14.5 for parking. The site has little space for an expansion of parking, however.

The South Central Avenue site is county land owned by the Joe McGrath family of Camarillo. It is zoned for agriculture and would also require a zoning change.

Stadium commission officials are careful to point out that the proposed stadium would be used for a variety of events and not just baseball.

An artist’s conception included in the study shows stadium configurations for baseball games, circuses, rodeos and concerts.

The stadium would seat up to 4,000 for baseball, 4,600 for a circus, 4,200 for a rodeo and 5,300 for a concert.

For the stadium’s first year, the study’s summary of utilization lists 65 baseball games, nine other sporting events, seven concerts, seven family shows, three community shows and one miscellaneous event. In the first 10 years, stadium usage is estimated to grow from 92 dates to 113, with total attendance climbing from 190,650 to 307,860.

As the attendance increases, so should the profits. The study estimated the stadium should make a profit of $654,900 a year by 1995. “It will not pay itself in early years, but it isn’t very far from doing that,” said David Price, the architect who developed the stadium’s design. “The stadium is extremely versatile and should be an attractive site for many sources of entertainment.”

Said McMullen: “It’s a nice looking project and it seems to meet the needs of everybody. What we have to do now is set the wheels in motion. For us, there’s no more time to look at pictures and talk about what might be nice.

“If we’re going to do it here, we’re going to have to do it now.”

CAMARILLO STADIUM: ESTIMATED COST

Item Magnitude Cost Clearing, grading, earth moving 878,400 yards $44,000 Berms and grandstand 8,000 yards 40,000 Paving parking lot 431,500 sq. ft. 475,000 Driveways 21,800 sq. ft. 28,000 Walks 32,700 sq. ft. 30,000 Concrete features 25,000 sq. ft. 50,000 Concrete service area 18,000 sq. ft. 45,000 Area lighting 486,000 sq. ft. 121,500 Paving storm drains 464,000 sq. ft. 92,800 Portable bleachers 4 55,000 Concrete steps 28,000 sq. ft. 140,000 Dugouts 600 sq. ft. 12,000 Dressing room/lockers 4,800 sq. ft. 182,000 Dirt parking areas 51,300 sq. ft. 5,000 Ballpark dirt work 140,325 sq. ft. 14,000 Ballpark sodding 100,800 sq. ft. 15,000 Exit runways 1,600 sq. ft. 5,000 Stairs 16 flights 64,000 Food preparation 800 sq. ft. 96,000 Rest rooms 2,800 sq. ft. 154,000 Movable stage 1,500 sq. ft. 150,000 Light and public address towers 4 100,000 Grandstand canopy 22,680 sq. ft. 113,400 Lagoon boxes 35,000 Playing field lighting 79,200 Landscaping 100,000 Kiosks 2 6,000 Fountains 2 50,000 Waterscaping 30,000 Seating 3,000 120,000 Total Construction cost 2,452,400 Contingency fee 245,000 Contractor’s fee 269,700 Architectural fee 178,000 Grand total 3,145,100

Source: Harrison Price Co. of Los Angeles