Is it the final out for Tiger Stadium?

Demolition nears for beloved landmark

Joel Kurth and David Josar / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Nearly seven years after a century of baseball ended at Tiger Stadium, money for its upkeep is running dry -- and so are hopes it can ever be saved.

This summer, the cash-strapped city should decide whether to demolish the ballpark that once housed baseball immortals but lately has become a symbol of the city's political and economic failures.

Early indications are that now may be the time to snap those final keepsake photos.

By month's end, a $400,000 annual stipend to pay for maintenance of the stadium will expire. Detroit officials say they've yet to see a realistic plan to reuse it and acknowledge they've already formed plans to disassemble the stadium and auction all its contents, from steel beams to seats.

"We've given it an honest and long look to redevelop it," said Fred Rottach, a planning department official charged with soliciting plans for renewal. "Now, the time has come to either keep it or not keep it."

Razing the sentimental mainstay at Michigan and Trumbull may not only be a blow to the city's psyche, it would be heresy to a circle of fans and preservationists who equate ballparks with cathedrals.

Although no precedent exists to develop major league stadiums into commercial uses, many hoped the fields once roamed by Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer and Lou Whitaker would be different.

"This is our history," said Mark Domin, 51, an advertising copy writer from Grosse Pointe Park who operates the fan Web site www.tigerstadium.org.

"I strongly believe an old ballpark like Tiger Stadium is just as important as Gettysburg."

City won't talk timetable

George Jackson, chief executive officer of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., refused to discuss timetables for demolition. He said the issue, however, has become a question of not if, but when.

"You just can't do it you have to face reality," said Jackson, the city's acting director of planning and director. "Mayor (Kwame Kilpatrick) and I have reviewed a number of plans. They're all pretty unrealistic."

The city is still accepting proposals for the property, but they now must detail what would be built on the parcel once the stadium comes down, Jackson said. Big-box stores are a possibility, but the city prefers projects that have retail and residential uses.

Since the Tigers moved to Comerica Park in 2000, the city has paid the team's owner, Mike Ilitch, an estimated $2.5 million for maintenance and security at the old park. The money comes from a surcharge placed on Tiger Stadium tickets, but those funds run out at the end of March -- a further hindrance to redevelopment.

Safety fears have all but completely closed the field to outsiders. Last month's Bud Bowl party during Super Bowl weekend marked the first time the general public could venture inside.

Some 2,000 attendees were mostly confined inside tents erected in the outfield. Those able to walk outside restricted areas saw a ballpark still structurally sound, but showing visible signs of age: peeling paint; stuffing exposed on chairs; crumbling chunks of the center field wall; and a visitors' dugout gate held together by what appeared to be a single screw.

The city's payments to Ilitch ensure the exterior of the park "doesn't look that different than the day it closed," said Rottach, who wouldn't allow newspaper photographers inside the park.

Most plans weren't feasible

Numerous plans have come and gone since the park-- opened five days after the Titanic sank in 1912 -- closed Sept. 27, 1999.

Some sounded grand. Most weren't feasible or lacked financing, Rottach said.

"We didn't want it to be used as a flea market or for bullfighting," he said. "Some of the ideas were on the outer edges. Many ideas were great, but when we pressed, there was no money."

Among the plans: Concerts, soccer games, lofts, shopping courtyards and serious consideration by the Canadian Football League to put a franchise in the stadium.

Two proposals emerged as front-runners, but fizzled after negotiations with the city: A plan by a St. Louis developer to retool the stadium into lofts and rentals; and a separate proposal to use the space for a sports, residential and office complex featuring condos, stores, a scaled-down baseball diamond and volleyball courts.

The reality: The very features that make Tiger Stadium so beloved -- its age and unique shape, crooks and crannies -- make it impractical to rehab, said Jeff Hausman, president of the Michigan chapter of American Institute of Architects.

"You're talking two, three or even four times the cost of building new," he said.

Peter Comstock Riley, a partner in preservationist group Michigan & Trumbull LLC, countered that city officials long ago made up their minds to raze the park.

Riley's group has unsuccessfully sought the city's permission for years to host minor-league baseball and other sporting events in the stadium.

"Nobody's taking care of it. It's just being left to crumble," said Riley, whose company recently offered to assume the $400,000 a year the city was paying for security and maintenance.

"There's going to be no other choice but demolition."

Neighbors: Make a decision

In the Corktown neighborhood surrounding Tiger Stadium, residents have absorbed the blow of its closure and are rebounding. Lofts and restaurants are opening. New residents are moving in.

They want something -- anything -- to happen to Tiger Stadium, said Brian Perrone, an owner of Slow's Bar BQ that opened last year a few blocks down Michigan.

"I just want something to happen, one way or another," he said. "The sooner something happens, the happier we'll all be."

At Louie's Place pawn shop nearby, photographs of old Tigers players still line the walls. The emotional yearning for Tiger Stadium, though, is nothing more than a nostalgic relic, said owner Arthur Schwartz.

"Sentiment doesn't bring people in. Sentiment doesn't do anything," he said. "It can't stand forever. Tear it down."

You can reach Joel Kurth at (313) 222-2610 or jkurth@detnews.com.