Beloit Snappers Eye New Baseball Stadium
Team Hopes New Location Will Draw More Fans
Posted: 8:42 pm CDT October 11, 2006
BELOIT, Wis. -- The Beloit Snappers, with the help of a private investor, are looking at plans to build a new stadium for the Snappers.Ideas for a new stadium are in their infancy, and county officials are in the process of studying the proposal.The proposal for the new stadium includes more than just baseball, WISC-TV reported.With the help of Mulder Dairy Farms, the Snappers hope to swap county farmland for land near Interstate 90, a site that would hold both a new stadium and 4-H fairgrounds."This brings the private aspect. It's not even a taxpayer issue at this point, which is very exciting. You don't have this opportunity to come too often," said Dennis Conerton, chairman of the board for the Beloit Snappers.The team is hoping the location of the interstate will help generate more fans."The Appleton Foxes, that are now the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, left a residential setting much like we're in, and moved out to the interstate, and they became a regional draw. So while we draw 50 percent of fans from outside of Rock County, we think that there are options to grow that," Conerton said.The proposal also includes mining on Mulder's private land, with a percentage of the profits funneling into a new county-run charity.Money from the charity could help the new stadium and fairground, WISC-TV reported.The county board said the proposal looks great, but it worries infrastructure costs could burden the county."Anything from the egress and ingress of the volumes of traffic that we need to accommodate, to the appropriations and installations of the facilities, water, sewer, power, you name it, telephone … everybody needs to be connected," said Richard Ott of the Rock County Board of Supervisors.County officials will learn more about the proposal in the coming weeks. The Snappers said they hope the proposal will help the team break new ground by next spring."I think it has so many pluses, and I think the citizens of Rock County will benefit greatly if this proceeds forward," Conerton said.The county said it will meet with the private party who proposed the deal on Oct. 26. At that meeting, county officials hope questions about the plan's infrastructure will be answered.
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