BURBANK : Board Votes 3 to 2 to Demolish Stadium

The Burbank Parks and Recreation Board has voted to tear down Olive Memorial Stadium, a 47-year-old baseball stadium once used for the St. Louis Browns’ tryouts.

Board member Terre Hirsch, an advocate for the stadium, voted against the board action because it gave no provision for replacing the facility.

Board member John Dominguez also dissented in the 3-2 vote, which was taken last week.

A special committee had recommended that the city tear down the facility and replace it with a modern one better suited to meet the needs of the community.

The stadium has been closed in recent years for safety reasons, and while city officials have long considered tearing it down, there has been some opposition from the public, especially those who remember the heyday of the building when major league legends such as Satchel Paige, Bobby Thompson and others once played there.

It was also the site of professional football tryouts.

“Just to get rid of it because it doesn’t look good, is not a good reason to demolish it,” Hirsch said. “The problem was that it didn’t meet the full needs of the parks and recreation program.”

As a baseball facility in a city that had a growing interest in softball, the usefulness of the stadium had declined in recent years, he said.

But Hirsch had fought for the stadium because of what it had meant to the community.

“I think there will be a lot of people who will be saddened to see a piece of Burbank history disappear by the way of a wrecking ball,” Hirsch said.

The fate of the stadium will ultimately be determined by a vote of the City Council, which has not been scheduled yet.