DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997                TAG: 9703040280

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB AND HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   93 lines

6,000-SEAT BEACH FACILITY SOCCER STADIUM MAY BE IN DOUBT

A 6,000-seat soccer stadium in Lake Ridge that a few months ago appeared to be a sure thing now may be in doubt.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the stadium today in a closed session. Some council members have voiced support for the stadium, but others are expressing concern about its cost - an estimated $8 million - and location.

Rising construction costs, conflicting impact studies and opposition from the officials of GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater, which would be a neighbor of the stadium, have eroded some of the project's earlier support.

Most council members said they have yet to make up their minds on the stadium. They ran out of time in a council executive session last week for a full briefing on the proposal.

The stadium plan is tentatively scheduled for a council vote on March 11. Stadium backers say privately they think the stadium will pass by a narrow margin.

Initially, the stadium would serve as the home field for the Hampton Roads Mariners minor league soccer team, but it also could be used for the Hampton Roads Sharks semipro football team and high school football and soccer playoffs.

The Mariners would run the stadium for the city and would seek to attract other events, such as rodeos and tractor pulls. The stadiumwould be expandable to 30,000 if a Major League Soccer team came to Virginia Beach.

Original estimates put the cost of the first phase at about $6 million. That figure jumped to $8 million late last year. Expansion to 30,000 seats could cost up to $60 million, according to the firm that designed the stadium.

It would be about 3,500 feet from the amphitheater, whose officials say they are worried about potential noise and traffic problems.

Originally, the stadium was placed next to the amphitheater so they could share parking. Officials say city-owned Lake Ridge is the only suitable site for a stadium adjacent to adequate roads.

But Bill Reid, president of Cellar Door of Virginia Inc., which holds the lease on the amphitheater, has told the council that putting 30,000 screaming soccer fans near 20,000 people trying to listen to a concert would be a mistake. And getting that many people out of both facilities at the same time would be impossible, he said.

Reid sent the council a letter last week in which he said he was not made aware of the stadium location until Dec. 1, and he said the city chose the Lake Ridge site based on ``inadequate research.''

The city and Reid have consulted noise and traffic experts who came to different conclusions. Reid has produced testimony indicating there's little doubt a stadium in Lake Ridge would hurt the amphitheater. Experts hired by the city say a compromise in scheduling could be worked out to solve noise problems and that traffic problems would be minimal.

``We support a soccer stadium, but we agree with the experts that the close proximity of both facilities pose a significant traffic and sound problem for each other,'' Reid said.

Jack Wrightson of the Dallas consulting firm of Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams Inc., said in a letter to city officials last week that most noise generated at the stadium ``will not be audible'' at the amphitheater. But he noted that Reid ``has expressed a no-tolerance position'' regarding noise and traffic congestion from the stadium. ``Cellar Door does not want to be able to hear the stadium at any time,'' Wrightson wrote.

He said a compromise between Cellar Door and the Mariners is necessary, including possibly a scheduling compromise in which both facilities could black out dates to avoid simultaneous events. The city also might want to alter its lease with Cellar Door to compensate the company for any financial losses, Wrightson wrote.

Mariners owners Mark Garcea and Page Johnson met last week with Reid, Wrightson and city officials in an unsuccessful effort to reach a compromise.

Johnson said he sent a letter Friday to City Manager James K. Spore offering a compromise that would provide for scheduling blackouts at the stadium and a staggering of starting times so games would not be played at the same time as amphitheater events.

``We feel like we've satisfied all of the concerns,'' Johnson said.

Reid provided City Council with a letter from William C. Bethmann, a sound engineer from California who helped design the amphitheater. Bethmann wrote that stadiums and amphitheaters in Atlanta and San Diego that operate next to each other have sound and traffic problems, and he said he does not consider such facilities compatible.

Johnson said he has talked to officials in Dallas who said an amphitheater and the adjacent Cotton Bowl operate with no conflicts.

City officials hoped to ease Reid's concerns by moving the stadium about a mile away within the Lake Ridge property. But Reid has told city officials that wouldn't alleviate either the noise or traffic problems. Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads would still be the only two major roads leading to both the stadium and the amphitheater, he said.

City officials consulted the Virginia Beach firm of Langley and McDonald, which estimated an additional delay of only four minutes with 20,000 patrons at the amphitheater and 30,000 at the soccer stadium. Cellar Door consulted the McLaurin Co., which estimated that fans would experience a 50- to 60-minute delay with 20,000 fans at the amphitheater and 15,000 at the soccer stadium.

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