Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 20, 1995 TAG: 9503200013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER NOTE: Strip
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Salem Avalanche General Manager Sam Lazzaro has started making daily pilgrimages - sometimes three times a day - to the mounting mass of concrete behind the Salem Civic Center.
The new stadium is his lifeline; as the countdown to baseball's opening day in the Carolina League gets closer, he is becoming increasingly anxious.
``I'm not nervous - concerned is a better word,'' Lazzaro said. ``This is how I feed my family, by promoting baseball. If your livelihood depended on this, wouldn't you be?''
His fears may be justified.
Opening day is less than a month away, yet the only thing 100 percent completed in the new stadium is the field - the project's first undertaking.
But ``a lot can happen in 30 days,'' Salem City Councilman Alex Brown said.
Salem is preparing to test that theory.
The next four weeks are jam-packed with deadline after deadline.
There are the stands and retaining wall to finish, lighting and the warning track for the city to put in, a backstop to suspend from the lights, and seating to start. Then, the second phase of construction, which includes the clubhouses, elevators, bathrooms, waterproofing and other detail work, can begin.
Even if all of the cogs are in place and running smoothly, F.A. ``Doc'' Shane, the project's architect, said the stadium won't be finished by April 14, and its cost will exceed the $5 million voters approved in the July referendum.
Shane cannot say when everything on the stadium will be complete.
However, he did say the stadium will be done ``enough to play baseball in if they want to'' on opening day.
That's all Lazzaro wants to hear. As long as the structure's safe, he wants to play ball, no matter what.
But the final decision rests with the city, and City Manager Randy Smith is not convinced that it will be safe to play.
``I'd be very doubtful they could make opening day. It's too big a project to rush and stumble and fall,'' Smith said.
The city won't make a call on whether the season will open in the new stadium until closer to opening day, Smith said.
Until then, Lazzaro will keep hoping.
``We can put up with hardships. We can improvise to open,'' Lazzaro said. ``Even a half-finished stadium will far exceed what Municipal Field has to offer.''
According to Lazzaro, a return to the old Salem Municipal Field, even if only for a few games, is out of the question.
The old field's dugouts are too small, the lighting and restroom facilities are inadequate, and the field's dimensions and press boxes don't meet professional baseball standards.
However, improvising may mean a temporary return for the team to Municipal Field-type accommodations, with fans sitting on prickly concrete, using port-a-johns and buying food at temporary concession stands.
If the city agrees to let the Avalanche play in the stadium on the 14th, it won't be the way Shane envisioned the stadium's inaugural.
``We thought we could get it done," Shane said.
After all, he's done it before. He completed Salem's football stadium and the Moyer Sports Complex on time and near budgeted cost.
``We just zapped [the football stadium] on out. We were only 15 seconds late kicking that ball opening day," Shane said. But ``the concepts are quite different between a stadium and a ballpark. [A ballpark] is more concrete and more parts.''
It's also more work than he calculated at a time when his firm is juggling two multimillion-dollar projects - the stadium, and renovations at G.W. Carver Elementary School.
``We thought it would be a piece of cake. But when we started seeing other stadiums ... It's been a very educational experience. We've had to rearrange things and rethink things,'' Shane said. ``When we went to Norfolk, the game was an event. A happening. Everyone was on the concourse and in the family picnic area.''
His original stadium didn't have a picnic area, so he had to add one, and the concession area wasn't as large or as open as in other stadiums. So, he changed that, too. He also had to think about lighting for television, whether the sun would set in the eyes of the players during night games, and preserving a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the stands like the one fans enjoyed at the old field.
These were things he never had to consider with the football stadium, he said.
Professional baseball also has a stringent set of requirements for such facilities as clubhouses and press boxes. Not to mention Salem's own demands - enough space on the bleacher risers so that a seated fan won't be disturbed when another one walks by.
A ballpark ``is brand new to me,'' Shane said. ``I haven't done exactly this before, but I'm good at this type of construction. Salem wouldn't have hired me if I weren't. I just didn't know baseball.''
And each unforeseen change cost the project the one thing it couldn't get more of: Time.
Work on the stadium got off to a slow start because of the July referendum, Councilman Brown said.
The referendum ``was a waste of taxpayer money and time,'' he said. ``In a city of 25,000 people, it's pretty easy to get a sense of the mood of the people. I never heard anyone say they didn't want it. What I did hear was people wanted baseball to stay here, and to keep baseball here you have to build a stadium, and to build a stadium you have to spend money.''
Although construction on the field started in October, the stands, the project's next phase, weren't started until January.
Rainy weather and Shane's additions ``slowed us down a little bit,'' said Roger Falls, Avis Construction vice president.
Avis was scheduled to finish its concrete work by the first week in March, but is running about two weeks behind schedule, Falls said.
``There were minor changes all the way through this thing. They put in some extra seating in the skyboxes to accommodate more people and we had some panels added, but that's not unusual. They are trying to achieve a first-class stadium,'' Falls said.
First class, however, comes with a price.
The ballpark's price tag is expected to balloon from the $5 million voters approved to at least $6 million.
The city decided last week to put chairs throughout the stadium. Initially, cheaper benches were planned for general admission and more expensive chairs for reserved and box seats.
The stadium's final cost is still unknown because the last contract has not been awarded. Costs beyond the approved $5 million in bonds will come from unappropriated money from this year's budget or reserve funds.
Still, Brown considers the stadium a bargain.
``You need to put this into perspective. We're building a 6,500-seat baseball stadium at the same price [Roanoke] is building a walkway,'' he said, referring to the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks near Hotel Roanoke.
``Salem wants to do it right,'' Shane said. ``You can tell Salem is really proud of this. Look at the cover on the pitcher's mound. It has the Salem seal on it. And the first sign that [the city put] up in here was a `Welcome to Salem' sign with that bird of peace.''
by CNB