ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 19, 1995 TAG: 9512190062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
IT FLOODS, it's short on parking, its field is too narrow and there's not enough room for soccer. What to do with Victory Stadium?
The city should either tear down Victory Stadium and build a new one, or make major changes to the riverside landmark that has been Roanoke's major outdoor sports venue since 1942, a consultant told City Council on Monday.
The options on the stadium's future were part of an update on a major study of the city's future recreational needs. The unfinished $100,000 analysis, which council authorized in February, includes possible development of a combined indoor athletic field house, ice rink and recreational center.
At the least, courses the consultants have charted could cost taxpayers $11 million in the future. At most, according to estimates unveiled Monday, a new stadium and recreational facilities could cost $46 million.
City Manager Bob Herbert said he'll ask council to decide next month which direction the city should pursue.
"Talk to folks about it over the holidays and come back and advise us which way to go," Herbert told council.
To avoid violating the state's open meeting law, which calls for open sessions when three or more members of a public body are present, Herbert briefed council members on the study in private one-on-one meetings last week.
Except for Councilmen Mac McCadden and John Edwards, none of them raised any questions during the public briefing Monday.
Atlanta-based consultants Michael Holleman and Jeff Wingfield outlined three possible courses to take with the stadium.
The city could tear down all of the facility and build a new 15,000-seat stadium; take down one side and replace it with a smaller grandstand and band shell; or tear out front seats on both sides, raise the playing field by 5 feet to get it out of the floodplain, and expand it.
The first option would cost about $21 million. The other two options, which would include major plumbing and locker room renovations and perhaps a new press box, would cost $11 million to $12 million.
Salem this year built a 6,000-seat baseball stadium for roughly $10 million.
The consultants said major changes to the stadium are required if it's to get much use in the future.
Although the 53-year-old, 25,000-seat stadium is structurally sound, its plumbing and power systems are antiquated; it has more seats than it needs; the parking lot holds too few cars; and the field isn't large enough for soccer and major track and field events. It also floods from time to time, they noted.
Holleman and Wingfield charted two courses of action on indoor recreational facilities.
The first is to build a huge complex that includes a field house, an indoor pool and ice rink, and a multipurpose center for fitness, aerobics and community meetings. It would be between 200,000 and 300,000 square feet - two to three times bigger than the multilevel conference center the city recently built at Hotel Roanoke - and cost about $20 million, including site preparation. The complex could be built all at once or in stages.
The other option is to build elements of the complex in different locations. That would cost around $25 million because they wouldn't be sharing common facilities such as locker rooms, the consultants said. An indoor field house alone could cost nearly $7 million.
McCadden said be believes Victory Stadium should be torn down and replaced with a modern facility.
"We need something done, drastically, I think," he said.
But Edwards, who is leaving council for the state Senate, said a new stadium would cost too much.
As long as the existing structure is sound, the city ought to buy land for more parking and widen the field by taking up an existing track. A larger track could be built outside the stadium itself or elsewhere, he said.
Edwards also sided strongly with building an indoor field house either near Interstate 581 or at William Fleming High School. But he said adding an ice rink and aquatic center could be prohibitively expensive.
With the hefty price tags and upcoming council elections in May, both issues have the potential to become political footballs.
Some Roanokers in the recent past have weighed in strongly in favor of retaining all or most of Victory Stadium. Barbara Duerk, the only council candidate in 1992 willing to entertain notions of tearing it down, was soundly defeated at the polls.
In other action:
Edwards, who will be sworn into the state Senate on Jan. 10, informed council that his last day in city government will be Dec. 31.
That gives the remaining six council members until Jan. 30 to find a replacement for him. Currently the other six - three Democrats and three Republicans - can't agree on whether Edwards' successor should be a non-political "caretaker" council member or someone free to run in May for the remaining two years of his term.
By a vote of 7-0, council spent $100,000 on two downtown parcels to be used for employee parking: $65,000 for a house and lot at 517 Church Avenue, and $35,000 for a vacant lot on Campbell Avenue just west of Fourth Street Southwest.
By a vote of 7-0, council bought a new fire engine for $260,500.
By a vote of 7-0, council split the former Citizens Services Committee into two separate panels. One could evaluate requests for money from private human service agencies; the other would field funding requests from cultural agencies like Mill Mountain Theatre.
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Victory Stadium has been around sinceby CNB1942. Graphic: Chart by staff: Victory Stadium options.