Vigilante Stadium Talks Break Down

The future of the Mission Viejo Vigilantes may be in jeopardy following an impasse in negotiations between city officials and the South County Community College District over building a new baseball stadium at Saddleback College.

For months, Mission Viejo officials have grown frustrated by a lack of progress with the district over what they considered minor negotiating points. This week, the city sent college officials a letter formally closing further dialogue.

“It’s been like a bad marriage,” said Councilwoman Sherri M. Butterfield. “It had to end sometime.”

The letter could signal the end of minor league baseball in South County for the Vigilantes, who started spring training this week to prepare for the May 23 opening of their second Western League season at Saddleback College.

City officials say they are prepared to swallow about $500,000 they have already spent in improvements to the campus ball field that has been serving as a temporary home for the Vigilantes while negotiations progress.

Those talks suffered a major setback in March when district negotiators sent Mission Viejo a list of 38 additional demands, many of which city officials thought had been settled in 1997.

Vigilantes officials expressed surprise at the impasse and say they still hope the two sides can get together.

“I’m shocked,” said team President Pat Elster. “I hope what you’re seeing is an exasperated expression of frustration on the city’s behalf. I’m certainly not going to throw in the towel at this point.”

Elster declined to comment on whether the team would continue to play beyond this year in a temporary ball field that lacks facilities like permanent concession stands and team offices. However, city officials have said that Elster has told them that the Vigilantes couldn’t afford to stay in a temporary home.

The Vigilante team president said that city officials have already started looking for a new location in Mission Viejo for a stadium.

“I think the city is committed to finding a venue for us to play in,” Elster said. “We don’t want to be in Palm Springs or anywhere else. Mission Viejo and South County are where we always wanted to be.”

Last summer, the city scaled back its plans for a $6-million stadium that would have seated 4,500. Instead, the city is looking at a cozier 3,500-seat ball field with a price tag of about $3.5 million.

Among the district’s 38 conditions for approving a long-term lease would be a loop road near the ball field that would have handled extra traffic at Vigilante games, a provision contained in the original proposal, said Mike Runyan, the district’s acting vice chancellor.

“We would like to have a stadium,” said Runyan. “We would like to pursue having a stadium, not with Mission Viejo, but on our own. To be honest, we’re not prepared to sacrifice our own facilities and programs” to partner a ball field project with Mission Viejo.

City Manager Dan Joseph said that fulfilling the 38 conditions requested by the district would hike the price of the stadium nearly to the $6-million level originally discussed by the city.

“At least half the conditions were OK, but another half dozen were deal-breakers because they drove the stadium price up so high,” Joseph said. “The frustrating thing is that these issues were resolved with the district over a year ago.”