Dragons get $6M in city help for stadium after COVID woes
Aid will go toward roof, seating, plumbing and other upgrades.
Dayton City Commission has approved giving the Dayton Dragons millions of dollars for stadium improvements, which the team’s ownership says will help weather a “perfect storm” that was caused by COVID and new Major League Baseball requirements.
“Our goal is simple — it’s to make Day Air Ballpark great for our amazing fans, great for the Cincinnati Reds player personnel and Major League Baseball, but most importantly for the city of Dayton and the area where we operate,” said Robert Murphy, president of the Dayton Dragons.
The city’s $6 million contribution will help team owner Palisades Arcadia Baseball LLC make major upgrades to Day Air Ballpark, which opened in 2020.
The owner plans to invest about $5 million of its own money into the facility and also has a $4 million commitment from Montgomery County and a $1.5 million state capital grant.
The total planned investment currently is about $16.8 million, but the team has an aspirational goal of raising another $5 million, Murphy said.
The stadium originally cost about $23 million to build, and
the city pitched in more than $13 million for that project.
Team ownership has invested more than $24 million into the ballpark, Murphy said, and the Dayton Dragons organization has had a big economic impact on downtown and the quality of life in the surrounding area.
Dragons’ home games average more than 7,000 fans, and the team’s 56 games this year brought more than 444,000 people to the stadium.
The downtown area around the stadium has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment since it opened.
The Dayton Dragons inject more than $27 million annually into the local economy, and the cumulative investment tops $600 million since minor league baseball came to the Gem City in 2000, according to the team and a study.
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said the ballpark’s impact on downtown is easy to see.
“You can just walk around or look at the before and after pictures to realize that this was a major catalytic investment that has been leveraged many times over,” she said.
But the Dayton Dragons were walloped by the pandemic.
The stadium did not host a baseball game for about 617 days, and Murphy said it was very tough to go 20 months without revenue.
When the ballpark reopened in May 2021, many fans had credits from the canceled previous season, which didn’t help with finances, and attendance for a while was limited to a fraction of the stadium’s capacity, Murphy said.
Also, Murphy said, there was a “COVID hangover,” and some fans were slow to return to watching live sports.
On top of those challenges, the stadium has significant maintenance needs as it enters its 24th year of operation, including for its HVAC and plumbing systems, as well as the roof and seating.
Major League Baseball also imposed new stadium requirements for its minor league teams at a rough time, as they struggled to financially recover from the public health crisis, Murphy said.
MLB now is requiring minor-league licensees to have pro-level stadium lighting and to make other behind-the-scenes upgrades, he said.
COVID made it difficult for the team to fund the needed capital projects, he said.
But Murphy said the Dayton Dragons have been a “difference-maker” in the community, and upgrading the stadium makes sure the team will remain that way for a long time to come.