Billionaire goes to bat for new Beloit ballpark
Full house expected for Tuesday game
BELOIT - It was January 2020 and the Beloit Snappers minor-league baseball team was banking on a miracle.
Quint Studer, a Pensacola, Florida businessman with strong Wisconsin ties, flew to New York with Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks.
Their aim: convince Major League Baseball officials that Beloit, with a lovable yet bare bones ballpark named Pohlman Field, deserved to make the cut and keep its place when the minor leagues slimmed down.
Beloit didn’t need another quaint, field of dreams. It needed a new ballpark with top-notch facilities to nurture young players.
Studer, who was about to take over management of the team’s operation, recalled: “Diane came in, very unassuming, put out the blueprint and said, ‘I want to build this stadium.’ “
The officials told them if the ballpark was built the team would stay, Studer said.
On Tuesday, ABC Supply Stadium opens for business, a $37 million gem overlooking the Rock River in downtown Beloit.
Hendricks provided much of the money for the privately-financed multipurpose facility that is run by a nonprofit, the Riverbend Stadium Authority. The firm that Hendricks and her late husband, Ken, built, ABC Supply, is the stadium’s corporate sponsor.
The Beloit Snappers, now an Advanced Class A team for the Miami Marlins, will take the field against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate.
A full house — 3,500 fans — is expected.
The brick ballpark is a beauty, with elegant arches, a concrete concourse that wraps around the artificial surface field and a major entry just beyond the center-field wall, linking the stadium to the downtown.
There’s also a swell party deck in right field and an indoor suite level ballroom.
Asked to name some of his favorite things about the ballpark, team president Jeff Jurgella points to the high-definition scoreboard, the view of the city and the cedar beneath the grandstand roof.
But he summarizes it all with four words: “It’s just the aesthetics.”
From the comfortable clubhouses to the batting cages to the lights, the facilities are first rate, just what Major League Baseball was looking for in minor-league teams.
In the end, Beloit made the final cut of 120 minor league teams.
And it would not have happened without the ballpark that took 13 months to construct as the country and world dealt with COVID-19.
‘We need something fun. And this is going to be fun’
Hendricks was not available for an interview.
In a promotional video for the ballpark, she reflected: “It was a struggling time for everybody in this nation and to be building a stadium in the middle of a pandemic, it’s like the wrong time but it’s the right time.”
She added: “The laughter you hear coming out of that building, the children and the cheers. We need something fun. And this is going to be fun.”
During a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday, Hendricks spoke of the many years the city waited for a stadium.
“Sometimes, we have to watch and let things evolve, and they will,” Hendricks said according to a transcript of her remarks.
She recalled the visit to Major League Baseball and said: “When we left there that day, I suddenly realized that if we had a stadium, we would have a team. We had to build it., but I knew we could do that, too.”
After all the work, especially during the pandemic, she reflected on how “life can be very risky,” but the community and the downtown were ready for the stadium. She thanked all those who were involved in the project and said, “It’s a very wonderful feeling to give back.”
It’s yet another piece in an array of buildings and businesses that the Hendricks family has carved out over the years to revive downtown Beloit. A top donor to Republicans, Hendricks has been a key and steadfast benefactor in Beloit.
This park isn’t just about sports — it’s about bringing a sense of community downtown.
The stadium, which sits on a 7-acre parcel, isn’t surrounded by a large parking lot. Instead, the idea is to have people park a few blocks away and do some shopping before entering the facility.
And the hope is to lure fans, not just from surrounding towns and cities in Wisconsin, but also from northern Illinois, creating a regional asset.
“We wanted to create and develop a building that establishes prominence,” said John Gackstetter, an asset manager for Hendricks Holding Company who represents the stadium authority and helped oversee the project. “This isn’t something that is going to go away. This is here to stay. We wanted to build a building that is worthy of any downtown, with arches, grand entries, lights because it has its purpose in this community.”
Minor league baseball is a Beloit tradition
Minor league baseball has been part of the city’s fabric since 1982, when the Beloit Brewers started play. The team became the Snappers in 1994. And it will get a new name and logo next year.
For decades, Beloit’s team was community-owned and operated. Board members didn’t just donate their time — they pitched in to repair things, sell tickets and run the concessions, said Dennis Conerton, a retired local businessman who was president of the board.
The search for a new stadium? “It was a 20-year process,” Conerton said. “It took a lot of searching, a lot of investigation, a lot of feasibility studies.”
Some wanted a new park out by the interstate. Others saw the future in a downtown stadium. Meanwhile, attendance faltered, with the team drawing just 73,200 fans or 1,181 people per game in 2019.
Major League Baseball’s push to contract the minor leagues helped force the issue.
The community-led board agreed to sell the team to Studer, who owned another minor league team, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. Studer’s Gateway Professional Baseball Group took over the team through an operating agreement.
The transaction price has not been announced.
Conerton said after paying off debts and legal bills, the board will donate the remainder of the proceeds to the nonprofit authority that oversees the stadium.
He is eager to watch the first game in the new park.
“Seeing it rise up and seeing the excitement, it’s just overwhelming,” he said.
The park fits a vision held by both Studer and Hendricks.
Born in Illinois, Studer received a master’s degree in special education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and taught in Janesville and Illinois. After battling alcoholism and receiving treatment, he switched to the healthcare field.
He eventually founded Studer Group, a private healthcare consulting business.
Studer still has children and grandchildren in Janesville, where he and his wife, Rishy, own Bodacious Shops of Block 42.
In the early 2000s, Studer and his wife got the baseball bug, purchasing an independent team in Pensacola. They eventually got a new ballpark built and brought a Double A team to the city.
Studer is hoping the same synergy works in Beloit.
“The best cities in the world figure out how to keep their talent home,” he said. “It comes down to vibrancy.”
He loves downtown Beloit and said the ballpark “is going to bring more vibrancy to the community.”
And he gave Hendricks full credit for completing the project.
He recalled: “Diane said, ‘we’re going to build this so when the pandemic goes away people will know Beloit is in business’.”