Mission Viejo Shrinks, Delays Planned Stadium

A proposed baseball stadium for the Mission Viejo Vigilantes minor league team will be significantly scaled down and open a year later than planned, city officials said Monday.

Concerned about how much revenue the stadium will generate, officials intend to cut the $6-million project in half, partly by reducing capacity from 4,500 to 3,500 seats.

“We’re trying to be more realistic about what this whole project will bring in,” City Manager Dan Joseph said.

The city had anticipated clearing about $100,000 from the estimated $254,000 per season in ticket and concession sales revenue. However, now officials want to finance the facility entirely with redevelopment funds rather than depending on variable ticket and concession revenue.

“We’re working to see what kind of stadium can be built if we tie construction [to redevelopment revenue] and not ticket sales from the baseball team,” Joseph said.

The Vigilantes were lured from Long Beach to Mission Viejo partly because of the city’s offer to build a stadium. The team, which ends its season on Aug. 31, plays in a temporary facility at Saddleback College.

The team had hoped to see a permanent stadium built in time for the 1998 season, but the city doesn’t expect to have the new sports park ready until early 1999.

Critics of the baseball stadium said Monday that the downsizing shows the original concept was overblown.

City officials “so overestimated attendance and revenue, it makes sense that they scale it back,” said attorney Brad Morton, who leads the Committee for Integrity in Government, a community watchdog group.

Even a smaller, less expensive ballpark should be voted on by Mission Viejo residents, he said.

Although few residents have opposed the stadium at council meetings, Morton said about 80% of them canvassed by the watchdog group at local supermarkets are against the city paying for the sports park.

Joseph said the original $6 million figure was meant to be flexible depending on anticipated revenue. “As more information comes out, as all of the data becomes known, we’ve reacted to it,” he said.

Team President Pat Elster said the Vigilantes “understand the money issue. We support this thing getting done in as cost-effective way as possible.

“We can live with a few less seats,” he said.

Plans for the permanent baseball stadium still need go before the South Orange County Community College District trustees for consideration.

With the city taking a new look at financing the stadium in recent weeks, it became obvious that there would be a delay getting new plans to the college trustees, Joseph said.

“It would be physically impossible to get the stadium done” in time for next season, he said.