Developing a Bid for a Class-A Ball Team : Baseball: Self-taught designer is working hard to build a stadium in Oxnard and attract a California League team.

Stanley Moorman has constructed a scale model of a minor league baseball stadium. Thinking of every detail, down to a teeny lawn mower for the outfield grass, he has scaled the left-field line at a very major league 360 feet (to compensate for prevailing westerlies) and placed a two-story restaurant in right field, creating a barrier much like the Green Monster in Fenway Park.

“I’m not sure if you’ll have to hit a ball over the restaurant to hit a home run,” Moorman says.

A 33-year-old self-taught designer and developer, Moorman is making a serious bid to bring minor league baseball back to Ventura County. But before he can actually start worrying about such matters as ground rules for his stadium, he has a few other details to iron out.

Like, where does he get $6.5 million to build a 5,600-seat lighted ballpark?

Can he really buy a California League Class-A team and move to Oxnard?

Will the city allow him to build a stadium at the site of an aging drive-in theater on Oxnard Boulevard.

Despite these obstacles, Moorman isn’t deterred. In fact, he is bubbling with confidence and chutzpah.

“I’ve not had anybody tell me it’s a bad idea,” he says. “And the more optimistic I become, the more I’m sure it’s going to happen.”

Others are not quite as upbeat. “We like the idea, but he’s got a real challenge ahead of him,” says Dennis Matthews, city of Oxnard redevelopment administrator.

As president of a small Oxnard development company, Moorman may know something about raising capital and dealing with city hall, but this particular project is a lot more complicated than building a house. The way the deal is structured, Moorman needs to purchase a California League team even before getting official city approval to build the stadium.

But it can be done. According to the league, Moorman will have to buy a team in another city and leave it there until the Oxnard stadium is ready. “In no way, shape or form would we guarantee someone who’s building a stadium that they’ll get a franchise,” says league administrator John Levenda, “but that’s not to say they can’t buy an existing team.”

Moorman says he has spoken with “several owners” in the 10-team league and regards a couple in particular as targets for purchase. In addition, he says that a triple-A owner from the Pacific Coast League has expressed interest, but would lease the stadium, not sell the team to Moorman.

Since making an informal presentation to the Oxnard City Council in December, Moorman has been inching along. To get the council to approve the stadium, he must file an environmental impact report, take control of the land, prove he has financing, obtain the proper zoning permits and draw up the blueprints, all of which will take time and money.

But Moorman says he will get the ball rolling in the next couple of months by filing a preliminary EIR. If he gets a favorable response from the council and determines whether he can acquire a 30-year lease on the land, he will be in position to attract investors and negotiate with a team owner to purchase a franchise.

“When the city approves the preliminary EIR,” Moorman says, “then I can say with confidence to investors: Let’s buy the franchise now. If they want to play, they pay up then.”

Owning a franchise, even in another city, Moorman says, “will be like insurance for investors if the stadium doesn’t go through.”

Moorman, who plays sandlot baseball on the weekends, says he already has about $100,000 in time and money invested in the project. Although he has heard from investors from as far away as New York, he says, “I have no money yet but I do have some commitments and a lot of interest.”

Moorman, who hopes to finish his stadium by the 1994 season, isn’t alone in hearing the baseball gods whispering, “build it and a team will come.” Levenda says he gets three calls a week from people who claim to be building stadiums or who are looking into the purchase of a franchise or asking him if the league has any plans to expand (the answer is no--the league has been at 10 teams since the mid-1980s).

Ironically, the last California League team to be sold was the Ventura Gulls. Moorman was reminded that the Gulls failed to find an audience, averaging only about 550 a game in 1986 at Ventura College, expiring after that one season and moving to San Bernardino (where they were resurrected as the Spirit). But Moorman says the Gulls were not an accurate barometer of the appeal of minor league baseball in the area.

“They didn’t have lights and couldn’t sell beer,” Moorman says. “If they had, they’d still be here.”

That opinion was echoed by Ken McMullen, a former major leaguer who was an owner of the Gulls. “Four o’clock in the afternoon is a very difficult time to play,” he says.

McMullen and his partners had taken a different approach than Moorman, bringing a team here before having an adequate stadium. They were hoping that the presence of the Gulls would prompt a Ventura County city to build a stadium, “but we got no commitment and we left,” McMullen says.

And a stadium is the key, Levenda says.

That’s what Rancho Cucamonga is counting on. The Inland Empire city is constructing a modern 4,000-seat stadium, which is expected to open in February, and has reportedly attracted interest from several California League teams.

While Rancho Cucamonga is using city redevelopment money to finance its stadium, Moorman is forming a private limited partnership and wants “only cooperation from the city.” Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi, however, already has expressed reservations, saying he is concerned about how lights will affect surrounding neighborhoods. He suggested that any stadium should be built on the periphery of the city, with freeway access.

With all the problems facing him, Moorman considers parking his most immediate concern, a potential deal breaker. His scale model includes space for only 650 vehicles on the 12 1/2-acre site. Because he needs to average about 1,900 fans a game to break even, additional parking must be found. He is asking the city to consider installing a shuttle trolley on existing tracks from downtown Oxnard to the stadium.

Moorman’s goal is to help revitalize downtown Oxnard. A couple of years ago, he and a friend were driving past the Sky View Drive-In, trying to think up urban renewal projects.

“I said, ‘What are we ever going to do with this?’ ” Moorman recalls. “My friend said, ‘Design a stadium.’ Believe me, I never had fantasies about building a stadium.”

He does now.