Ballpark Booster Strikes Out With City

An Oxnard businessman who wanted to build a baseball stadium in his hometown said Thursday he has struck out with city officials and plans to take his project elsewhere.

“All I have run into is one political wall after another,” said Stan Moorman, 37. “I am tired of it. I am going to go up to Santa Maria, where I am welcome, and build a ballpark.”

Moorman said he had recently lined up investors interested in financing a $10-million, 6,500-seat baseball stadium near Wooley Road and Oxnard Boulevard on the site of a former drive-in movie theater.

But the Oxnard native said city officials have been sending mixed signals about his vision of bringing an independent minor league team called the Smash to town.

In the latest twist in what he calls a six-year odyssey, Moorman said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez scheduled a meeting with the owners of the stadium site last Thursday and then didn’t show up. “That left the property owners dismayed, to say the least,” Moorman said.

But Lopez said he never called for such a meeting. “I had nothing to do with it,” the mayor said. “I was an invitee. What I found out later was that they had been given my name.”

Lopez said Moorman is one of several entrepreneurs who have pitched proposals to build a stadium park. News of other proposals has miffed Moorman, who said that Oxnard, along with Ventura and Camarillo, have all taken his ideas when discussing other projects.

Lopez said he did not know about Moorman’s claims, adding: “I know there are a lot of proposals floating around.”