Rival Ballpark Plans in a Race to Get to First Base

The first pitch came two years ago as a way to provide cheap entertainment to thousands of western Ventura County families: build a minor league ballpark somewhere in Oxnard, Camarillo or Ventura.

But a curveball followed months later when consultants recommended a Ventura site, and the other two cities balked.

Since then, plans for a baseball stadium on the west side of the Conejo Grade have instead become another pawn in the continuing regional competition among the three cities for economic development and investment.

While a Camarillo real estate investor has announced plans to build a stadium on freeway frontage property in his community, Ventura city officials are putting the finishing touches on ballpark plans of their own.

And developer John Hofer, the chief architect of the so-called Centerplex plan that was denied last year by the Ventura City Council, favors his own chances of opening a stadium first.

“I think [the other project] is out in left field,” said Hofer, who has been redrawing financing plans on his 6,000-seat project since last summer. “I have the exclusive arrangement for a [California League] team in Ventura County.”

Tim Wood, an Olympic medalist from Camarillo who intends to approach the Camarillo City Council later this month, is floating plans for a $70-million sports and recreation complex that rivals anything Ventura investors are considering.

Wood’s idea, which he calls Sportsplex, is to build an ice-skating rink, an indoor arena, a 6,000-seat stadium and an array of restaurants and shops on 125 acres south of the Ventura Freeway and west of Las Posas Road.

“I’ve got a formal commitment to finance the project and they don’t want to wait around,” said Wood, who captured a silver medal in skating at the 1968 Olympic Games. “They want to get the money out there working.”

Last year’s Centerplex proposal included a stadium, an aquatic center, a driving range, race car museum and other amenities on 75 acres behind the Ventura Auto Center.

Hofer envisioned a regional attraction that would dramatically increase car sales at the Ventura dealerships. The new plan is to build each of those facilities one at a time, according to architect Larry Rasmussen.

“The intent is to get a stadium up so they could play ball here by April of ‘97, and not wait for these other components,” Rasmussen said.

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Ventura council members rejected the Centerplex plan last summer because Hofer asked for more than $10 million in city money upfront. Without much detail, Ventura Mayor Jack Tingstrom said Wednesday that this time things would be different.

Tingstrom said he is confident that the latest incarnation of Centerplex would win approval from the City Council, in part because there are two new members.

“You’re going to hear a different package when it comes before the council,” said Tingstrom, who has been pursuing a stadium in the west county for years. “The new financing package is going to be right.”

Most observers concede that both projects, as now proposed, will not get built. Nonetheless, Camarillo officials are trying to keep calm about Wood’s proposition--and the tens of millions of dollars of economy activity it would mean for the city.

“It’s just like finding a bag of diamonds in the middle of the street,” Mayor David M. Smith said. “We just have to make sure that there’s financing behind it.”

An Olympic training center “certainly would make Camarillo known worldwide,” Smith said.

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Camarillo City Manager Bill Little was careful not to bank on Wood’s project beating Centerplex to the plate.

“There’s a lot proposals that come through the front door that never see the light of day,” Little said. “This one has a lot of merit but there’s also some drawbacks, and we need to go through all this.”

Wood said he has already drawn up tentative plans for the sprawling sports and recreational complex. He intends to ask Camarillo council members what they think of the plans on April 24. He anticipates unanimous council support and is shooting for a 1998 opening.

“I think it’s going to be a little time to get the city approval for this project--maybe six or eight months,” he said. “Then it will probably take 12 or 16 months to build.

“I feel confident we’ll get a team,” he said.

Others are not so optimistic.

Tingstrom, for example, predicted that a Ventura stadium would be open for business within one year. “Ours is going to be there first,” he said. “And it should go this year.”

Top Ventura administrators--Everett Millais, Steve Chase and Ronald J. Calkins--will meet next week to review the environmental impacts of the stadium proposal.

Hofer and Rasmussen, meanwhile, say a market analysis showing how much money the stadium would make will be completed soon. “Those feasibility studies will go a long way in determining the viability of these projects,” Rasmussen said.

Wood in Camarillo, however, remains undaunted.

“I have a real good understanding of what it takes to put a project together,” he said. “I did the same thing when I was an Olympian. My coach always said keep your mouth shut and just keep working.”