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Taxpayers still have their say towards financing, which is iffy at best:

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/10/14/helena/a011014_02.txt

Kindrick Legion Field

Two years ago, one of the old, 200-foot-tall light poles at this historic ballpark cracked under the stress of Helena Valley winds and fell into the outfield fence. If a sturdy metal fence post hadn't stopped its fall, the pole would have fallen onto the field during an American Legion baseball game.

A few years before, Legion General Manager Joe Underkofler watched a grounder take a bad hop on the rocky infield and break a player's jaw.

Helena Brewers General Manager Paul Fetz shook his head as he showed reporters the team's workout area - an exercise bike and a small weight machine are squeezed into a corner, a few feet from players' lockers.

The project to upgrade Helena's historic ball park, built around 1940, is primarily a matter of performing some needed housekeeping, though Fetz noted the work will improve fans' experience and make the park safer for players.

"Nowadays in the baseball business, and even in Legion ball … you want the people who come to enjoy themselves, that's a bottom line," Fetz said.

The professional ball club has outgrown its clubhouse, the poor playing surface hardens and sprouts numerous rocks through the summer, an uneven outfield sometimes causes injuries, the wooden baseline bleachers are nearing the end of their useful lives, and the ballpark lights are dim, inefficient and mounted on old wooden poles.

Officials want to rework the field, providing a softer, more manageable surface. The plans call for new bleachers - though the charming, historic grandstands will be left in place - and new metal light poles with energy-efficient lamps that will provide more light for players and fans and cut down on light pollution to the surrounding area.

The home clubhouse will be renovated and expanded, and parking improved with reused road millings, which cost less than asphalt surfacing.

"These improvements will maintain the character of the park but bring it up to standards that will be better for everybody," Underkofler said. "It's going to be good for a long time to come, and I'd say that really for the whole (parks) project."

A timeline hasn't been set, but if voters approve the bond, some work at the ball field could begin in the next year.

Stadium goes back to fundamentals

BY JAMES DEAN
FLORIDA TODAY

It's been years since Space Coast Stadium's hand-operated scoreboard celebrated home runs by launching a blinking baseball satellite and plumes of smoke.

But the Washington Nationals have a more fundamental concern with the old-fashioned and sometimes faulty equipment: timely and reliable score keeping.

Brevard County last week pitched in another $1 million to make stadium improvements requested by the team before spring training begins in February. The new money comes on top of $2.8 million spent last year.

Most noticeable to fans could be the installation of a $109,000 electronic scoreboard with a video monitor to replace the retro display, which for years hasn't performed its jazzier functions, such as the billowing smoke.

"These days, fans like to have more immediate information than what a hand-operated board can provide," said Michael Shapiro, the team's senior vice president of business affairs. "Our manual operation sometimes lagged behind."

But Shapiro said the team's priority would be making less flashy repairs, such as the drainage, fencing and lighting needed to achieve major league standards and improve the fan experience.

Team officials believed the spring training home they took over in 2005 had fallen into disrepair, referring to it last year as "a sponge."

"I think we've taken some major steps toward putting that facility back in good shape," Shapiro said.

A makeover begun last year featured dark blue seats with red railings that replaced the faded teal remnants of the stadium's original 1994 spring training tenant, the Florida Marlins.

This year, the most costly change will probably be replacement of field lighting to meet league standards, Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten said.

"We may have to change the entire lighting system," he said.

Under a lease that expires in 2017, the team pays for stadium operations and maintenance while the county is responsible for capital improvements.

The county typically budgets $500,000 a year for that purpose, but must maintain a $2 million fund. The budget also includes $765,000 to repay bonds that will be retired in 2013.

The money comes from taxes paid by tourists on lodgings -- not local property taxes -- that are specifically earmarked for the stadium and promotional activities.

The proposed new scoreboard is only slightly more expensive than the reported $90,000 spent on the original, which attempted to blend low-tech baseball tradition and space themes with a design resembling a launch facility.

In addition to providing instantaneous updates on hits, runs and errors, baseball executives said electronic boards with monitors can broaden the stadiums' appeal for community events.

"With a scoreboard today, it's not so much the baseball game side of house, it's what you're trying to accomplish with your stadium," said Buck Rogers, general manager of the Brevard County Manatees, a Class A team that shares the stadium.

For example, he said, some teams host movie nights at their fields.

One resident who won't miss the existing scoreboard is 64-year-old John Sheppard of Melbourne, who for more than two years had the job of hanging numbered cards on its pegs from a catwalk exposed to the elements.

The retired postal worker once bought clothespins to keep the numbers from blowing away in high March winds, and heard heckles on the rare occasion he made an error.

"It was hectic up there, running back and forth putting them cards up," said Sheppard, who gave up his outfield perch a couple of seasons ago. "I'd go for an electronic scoreboard. I think it would be beneficial for both the stadium and the spectators."