Funk building condos around ballpark
This might be pretty interesting. Bob Funk is considering building condos in and around the SBC Bricktown ballpark. This explains what could happen to the fan paring lot towards the east.
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"Funk: Condos could soon sprout behind the Brick
By Bob Hersom
The Oklahoman
Ever wanted to live at a ballpark? You may get the chance in Oklahoma City. Changes at The Brick
The RedHawks are considering several big changes at SBC Bricktown Ballpark. Among them, with estimated time of arrival, if known:
RedHawks owner Bob Funk hopes to build condominiums above the team parking lot just outside the right-field wall at SBC Bricktown Ballpark, and maybe above the fans’ parking lot to the east as well. Some or all of the condos would face the field.
“There’s so much development going on downtown, including other condo projects, that there is an opportunity for some luxurious condos on the right-field wall and/or the parking lot beyond,” Funk said.
Funk and RedHawks managing general partner Scott Pruitt have visited some condo sites in the Dallas area.
“We looked at maybe a combination of condo, retail and hotel,” Funk said. “We saw some interesting combinations, but we don’t know exactly how fast or how soon or what the design might be. But we’re certainly serious about doing whatever we can do to help improve downtown Oklahoma City.”
The ballpark condos covering what now is the team’s parking lot would start three or four stories above the existing lot, thereby increasing Bricktown parking. Same would go for condos to the east.
“Professional people and younger people are wanting to live in condos, without all the maintenance,” Funk said.
“I’m excited about it, because I think it would be a tremendous view overlooking the ballpark.”
That view may soon include not just baseball games, but high school football and the 2008 Big 12 soccer tournament. Those sports might eventually be played at The Brick, making it more of an all-sports stadium than All Sports Stadium was from 1962-97.
“We’ve looked into high school football games and possible NCAA soccer games,” RedHawks executive director John Allgood said. “The bottom line is that we’re fortunate enough to manage a facility for 365 days a year, and we feel like we owe it to Oklahoma City to have as many events as possible in the facility.”
The RedHawks hope to have the condos in place within two years. The ballclub’s cost for the condos and other proposed ballpark changes is unknown at this early point in the planning stages.
“There’s some opportunity there, but we certainly need to do our due diligence to make sure that it would be profitable,” Funk said.
The RedHawks may also add 40 to 60 seats to the ballpark’s capacity of 13,066. Those season-ticket seats would be closer to the field than any current seats.
“We’re looking at what a lot of major league teams are doing, and that’s putting season ticket seats actually on the field,” Allgood said. “We’d almost take an extension of the dugout down towards the outfield and adding seats down there, as close as you can get to the action as there is.”
The RedHawks are planning several other ballpark changes and additions for next year or 2007, when Oklahoma has its centennial celebration.
A new, larger, video board is scheduled for the center- field scoreboard. Another video board would be installed outside the ballpark on the Warren Spahn Plaza corner. And the current video board may be installed down the right-field line.
“We want to replace the board that’s out there now with a larger one, with new technology so that it would look clearer,” Allgood said. “We want a video board for outside the park that will inform the seven million people walking through Bricktown what’s going on inside our park.”
In the winter, the RedHawks may turn the ballpark field into a public ice rink, similar to but larger than the Braum’s Ice Rink annually installed near the Civic Center Music Hall.
“We would have public ice skating,” Funk said, “and the grounds crew has said it wouldn’t affect the grounds, so that’s good news.”
This winter, the RedHawks may debut a snow tube at the park that would run at least 200 feet, from the right-field upper deck to the home-plate area.
“We’d take advantage of the upper deck that we have and create a holiday activity inside the park,” Allgood said.
The grassy “batter’s eye” below the scoreboard in straightaway center field would be converted into an elevated, concrete stage for concerts. And the right-field picnic area, new this season, would add a cover.
“We’d create a cover for the stage so that it wouldn’t affect the batter’s eye at all,” Allgood said, “and we’re looking at a party porch in right with a cover for shade.”
Concerts? There will be more Christian concerts, as Friday Faith Nights continue to be a fixture at The Brick. RedHawks officials also continue to seek other concert themes. The last two years they have considered acts like Journey, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins and Jimmy Buffet.
“The ballpark is a great venue that I think has been underutilized for years,” Funk said of The Brick, which opened in 1998. “We want to make sure we maximize the utilization on the behalf of the fans of Oklahoma City.”
The RedHawks’ 2006 season will begin with an eight-game homestand April 6-13 against Memphis and Round Rock. "
. Hope this happens, and that the first floor will be used for retail/service/cafe space.
Originally Posted by floater
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