Will Days in Sun Cast Pall on Gulls? : Lack of Lights, Beer Permit Expected to Darken Ventura Team’s Outlook

The Ventura County Gulls minor league baseball team, having secured a place to play and a player-development contract in the past six weeks, now has a schedule, too.

Released this week by the California League, the Gulls’ 142-game schedule includes 64 home dates--including seven doubleheaders--beginning with the season opener April 11 against the Reno Padres at Ventura College.

Like all the Gulls’ home games, the Friday opener will be played during the day because the Ventura College facility has no lights.

That could make for a long season at the gate, Gull owners Ken McMullen, Jim Colborn and Jim Biby have been warned. “I think they’d better have a pretty deep sock,” said Lowell Patton, owner of the Bakersfield Dodgers.

The lack of a liquor license won’t help, either.

“I think we’ll be very fortunate if we break even because of the day baseball and the fact that we won’t have any beer,” admitted Biby, the Gulls’ general manager.

Still, there is no dampening the Gulls’ spirit. McMullen, Colborn and Biby believe they have overcome long odds just getting to this point.

After paying $125,000 last March to buy the franchise from Stockton businesswoman Michele Sprague, it took the new owners more than nine months to find a place to play. Originally, they had hoped to play in Camarillo. They didn’t secure a player-development contract until last month, when the Toronto Blue Jays, just about their last hope, finally chose Ventura County over Miami, Fla., and Kinston, N. C., for the home of its best Class-A team.

If the Gulls hadn’t secured a player-development contract, they might have had to sign players on their own. Under terms of a working agreement, or player-development contract, a major league team farms players, coaches and a manager to a minor league affiliate.

All things considered, the Gull owners are feeling pretty good about the way things have developed. Of course, they’d be feeling better if the Ventura College field had lights. Until daylight savings time begins on April 27, weekday games will begin at 1 p.m. After that, they will start at 4 p.m. Weekend games will start at 1 p.m.

“We’re going to do the best we can,” Biby said. “If we lose money, we lose money, but I’m not inviting the Grim Reaper in here.

“The people we’re going to attract are the people who are more independent and can take off work an hour early, or older people who are available all day long.

“During the summer, we’ll attract a lot of kids. We’re trying to work out a bus schedule for them--parents put them on SCAT (South Coast Area Transit) and send them out to the ballpark.”

The Gulls have considered the possibility of installing temporary lights. “It’s too costly for us,” Colborn said. “It’s not in the realm of our budget. . . . I don’t know how the college would feel about it, either. We’d have to get their approval.” He added, however, that the owners plan to look further into the cost of such an undertaking.

Brent Marchetti, a spokesman for Musco Sports Lighting of Muscatine, Iowa, which provided the lighting for last year’s Super Bowl at Stanford Stadium, said it would cost the Gulls up to $125,000 to install temporary lights for the entire season and up to $50,000 to install lights for a single event.

Harry Steve, president and general manager of the San Jose Bees, said the novelty of having minor league baseball in Ventura County, even without the lights, could carry the Gulls a long way.

“I know that sometimes when you’re going into a brand-new city, there’s a lot of enthusiasm there and you can draw no matter what time you play and no matter what kind of product you have on the field,” Steve said. “Hopefully, that’s the type of place they’re going to. They said everybody’s really excited about baseball coming there. And if that’s the way it is, they may do well.”

However, Steve also said, “I’m just glad I’m not in their shoes, trying to promote and sell nothing but day games.”

The Gulls have sold more than 100 season tickets, Biby said.

“I’d like to sell 500,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s realistic, but it’s a goal, and we’ve attained most of our goals. Might as well set them high.”

With minor league baseball returning to Southern California this season for the first time in 19 years, the league office scheduled the games with an eye toward limiting travel costs. Thus, the Gulls make only one trip to Reno, and Reno makes only one trip to Ventura. Meanwhile, the Gulls play Palm Springs 24 times.

Palm Springs is the new home for the Angels’ affiliate that played in Rohnert Park, Calif., last season.

The 10-team league is divided equally into two divisions. The Gulls play 82 games against Southern Division opponents Palm Springs, Fresno, Bakersfield and Visalia, and another 60 against Northern Division opponents Reno, Stockton, San Jose, Salinas and Modesto.

The season is divided into halves; the half-season winners in each division meet in a five-game series at the end of the season to determine the division champion. The division champions then meet in a five-game series for the league championship.

GULLS’ HOME GAMES

April

11--Reno; 12--Reno; 13--Reno (2); 23--Fresno (2); 24--Fresno; 25--Salinas; 26--Salinas; 27--Salinas.

May

2--Palm Springs; 4--Palm Springs (2); 9--Modesto; 10--Modesto; 11--Modesto (2); 20--Stockton; 21--Stockton; 22--Stockton; 23--San Jose; 24--San Jose; 25--San Jose (2); 26--Bakersfield; 27--Bakersfield.

June

6--Visilia; 7--Visilia; 8--Visilia; 10--Fresno; 11--Fresno; 12--Fresno; 13--Bakersfield; 14--Bakersfield; 15--Bakersfield (2); 24--Visilia; 25--Visilia; 26--Visilia; 27--Salinas; 28--Salinas; 29--Salinas; 30--Palm Springs.

JULY

1--Palm Springs; 2--Palm Springs; 11--Stockton; 12--Stockton; 13--Stockton; 14--Palm Springs; 15--Palm Springs; 16--Palm Springs; 25--Visilia; 26--Visilia; 27--Visilia (2); 29--Modesto; 30--Modesto; 31--Modesto.

August

1--Fresno; 2--Fresno; 3--Fresno; 4--Fresno; 11--Bakersfield; 12--Bakersfield; 13--Bakersfield; 14--Bakersfield; 21--San Jose; 22--San Jose; 26--Palm Springs; 27--Palm Springs; 28--Palm Springs.