Looking to Residents to Step up to The Plate (Boston Globe)

July 22, 2007 - A group that has worked for several years to build a minor league baseball stadium in Boston is now considering a site in Charlestown on land controlled by Bunker Hill Community College, even though the school’s board of trustees has already voted against the proposal.

The group, Boston Baseball Field of Dreams, made its pitch for a 6,000-seat, $50 million minor league stadium at a public meeting in Charlestown last Wednesday.

“As you all know, you’re here because we had a bump in the road with Bunker Hill,” Alex Bok, president of Field of Dreams, said to a crowd of more than 70 Charlestown residents that consisted mostly of stadium supporters. “We’re seeking an opportunity for people to hear our presentation and hear what we’re doing,” he said.

Since 2005, Bok has been trying to build a stadium and establish a Boston baseball franchise that would compete in either the Atlantic or Canadian-American independent minor leagues. In an interview last week, Bok said his group had informally discussed plans for the stadium with Mary L. Fifield, president of the college, but had not made a formal presentation to the trustees before they voted in late June against bringing the stadium to campus.

“We were very surprised,” said Bok.

“We had understood the process was we would get them a formal proposal and then we would come and make a presentation.” He is hoping that community support for the project might prompt the board to hear a formal presentation on the stadium in August or September, and then reconsider their vote.

Jeanne-Marie Boylan, chairwoman of the board of trustees, said trustees voted against the stadium because it “is not consistent with the mission of the college.”

Boylan said the stadium is “a private development, and would prevent any expansion for academic reasons on the site.” But she added, “If we received more interest from the developers, from residents of Charlestown, we would be happy to take that under consideration.”

The meeting last Wednesday was called by Tom Cunha, who served on the college’s board of trustees from 1993 to 2005 as a representative of the Charlestown community. Cunha voiced frustration that the college had not consulted the community before voting on the proposal.

“I would just like them to be a neighbor, and to share with their other neighbors what their rationale is before deciding without giving their neighbors an opportunity to at least view” the plan, said Cunha.

The land in question — parking lots just south of the John F. Gilmore bridge and east of the Orange Line — is owned by the state and controlled by the college.

If the board declines to take a second vote or rejects a formal proposal, Bok said his group will turn its attention to several alternative sites in or near the city.

Field of Dreams has previously proposed building the stadium at Boston University and on Columbia Point in Dorchester, and has been focused on the Charlestown site for about six months.

Last week, Bok said multiple sites in Dorchester were still under consideration, and added that Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has suggested several stadium sites in that city.

But the Charlestown site, said Bok, is especially appealing because of its proximity to I-93 and the Orange Line.

Construction would be privately financed, and organizers plan to generate significant revenue through naming rights. The stadium design is likely to resemble that of Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo. Field of Dreams members have made trips to Hammons and are working with its architectural firm, Pelham Phillips of Springfield.

While people at last Wednesday night’s meeting largely supported the proposal, there are concerns about the traffic that the stadium would draw during the 70 home games each season.

“I’m generally in support of this, but the traffic problem would need to be solved,” said Bill Galvin, a member of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council.

Bok said he believes existing parking spaces at lots that serve the community college and offices across Rutherford Avenue could handle the 1,300 cars expected during home games.

He also suggested that the stadium would be an economic boon for Charlestown, as well as a facility that the college could use as a home field for its athletic teams.

“The college has lots of stakeholders and they move very precipitously,” said Bok, “and we think we can persuade them to reconsider, and we think we will persuade them to reconsider.”

By Patrick McGroarty, Globe Correspondent | July 22, 2007