Minor-league team, Rollins could share new stadium
Winter Park would become home to a baseball stadium shared by Rollins College and a minorleague team under a proposed deal involving the city, the college, the team and developer Dan Bellows.
Bellows said Wednesday that a minor-league team he would not identify is interested in relocating to Winter Park, and he’s moving ahead with the site, pending city approval. The stadium would be within Ravaudage, the mixed-use project Bellows is developing at U.S. Highway 17-92 and Lee Road near Winter Park Village.
“We’re prepping the site right now,” Bellows said. “On our side, we’ll be ready to go.”
Rollins’ director of development, Mike Miller, estimated the likelihood of the team moving to Winter Park at “above 90 percent.”
Miller would not identify the team either, except to say it was a Class AFlorida State League team. That 12-team league includes the Brevard County Manatees, Daytona Beach Cubs and Lakeland Flying Tigers.
Late last year the Manatees, a Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, confirmed that Rollins had approached team officials about a joint stadium but said they had nothing to announce. Arepresentative of the Manatees, who now play in Viera, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
The stadium would cost $11 million to $12 million to build, Bellows estimated, with the cost shared by the team and Rollins. Miller said alumni of Rollins, whose baseball program has produced major-league players and general managers, have agreed to make donations.
Bellows would donate a 6-acre-plus parcel for the stadium and an adjoining practice field within the 73-acre Ravaudage, which also is designed to include restaurants and stores. The first business, a Miller’s Ale House restaurant, opened Monday.
Ravaudage, whose French name means “mending,” is a redevelopment of a once-blighted area. For Bellows, the addition of a stadium could mean thousands of baseball fans spending money at other businesses in the complex.
City commissioners have yet to weigh in on the
Universal also hosts fundraisers for the Florida Democratic Party — for instance, providing $75,000 worth of food and other freebies for an event after the November election.
plan, and renovating the Rollins team’s current stadium on Orange Avenue remains an option as well. That stadium has been in use since 1984 but needs extensive work and is poorly situated, with players having to look into the sun, Miller said.
“The city is intrigued with the possibility of bringing professional baseball to the area and is working with the team owner and Rollins College to determine if there is a viable location that works for all parties,” City Manager Randy Knight said.
Parking might be an issue at the present Harold Alfond Stadium if it were to be used by the two teams. But Bellows said Ravaudage should have