Hardball Capital CEO Jason Freier is in town and provided an updated slide show presentation on the evolving design of the Harrison Square Park downtown ballpark for the news media at 11:30 a.m. on June 6, 2007. The new design highlighted the capabilibility to seat approximately 6000 fans.
The artist renderings gives the ballpark a look more in line with the brick and limestone tower favor than a classic look for Fort Wayne fans. The tentative design will make the current design more of a fit with the architectural look of many of the buildings in the City of Fort Wayne. The new design incorporated some of the suggestions offered by the residents of Fort Wayne and from the over 60 ballparks viewed by the Wizard's owners.
One of these suggestions had to do with Senior City Council member Don Schmidt and traffic on Jefferson Boulevard being able to get a glimpse of the games being played. The new design utilized a point of entrance as a window of opportunities for those passing through to be able to see the action.
The issue of parking was a nonissue described as being countersituational, with folks coming and going, and the traffic flow managed would not require additional parking.
Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball has the rendering of the design made available for the media. I did not know that Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball was media, but they were in the room as well as I. However, I think who gets into these functions is determine more by who is a friend of whomever rather than the credentials if you know what I mean. In other words who is invited prints what they are told..and you know FWAAIW don't believe in propaganda..so here's the rest of the story.
Another selling point was the batting cage. The batting cage would be meet the requirement of the affiliates more so than the current one at the Wizard's current site. The new batting cage would serve as an opportunity for youth on attend the games to hit a few when not used by the team members.
It was clear that Freier was here in the city to presence the opportunity for the naming right and the selling of the luxury suites. I talked with one individual who had already expressed an interest in one of the suites. The Suite area would serve as an exclusive area for friends and family members of business people. It would also serve as an area to entertain a large group of individuals as well as privacy away from others. These suites would not be your in the background against the wall type of suites, but would be hanging over the concourse bringing the owners and their guests a closer view of the games.
Nevertheless, the bread and butter of the success of the Harrison Square Park is the high volume of traffic which will be needed to support the retail, according to Freier. I took that to mean, that it will take all kinds of family members to support the future best minor league baseball park. this project is a full day job. Also Freier appearance provides more credibility to the baseball park when the city is seeking for more money from the Grand Wayne Convention Center. Freier's appearance also suggest that the project is beyond the negotiation stage and moving more toward the final stage if not development stage in closing the deal. However, the closer to the deadline date of September 2009, the more costly the project may be as a point of clarification when questioned about the deadline
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