Mallards Stadium Renovation Scaled Back

Project Budget Cut In Half

Updated: 11:37 am CDT September 23, 2008

The multimillion dollar renovation of the Madison Mallards stadium has been put on hold while the project plans and budget change.

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The original plan would have remodeled the Duck Pond at Warner Park, rotated the baseball field 180 degrees to help block the sun and gave the ballpark a $5.5-million facelift.

Now, the plans have changed, however, and the project has been scaled back to halve the price, WISC-TV reported.

Instead of building new facilities, the plans will now renovate existing buildings.

The city will still authorize $800,000 for new bleachers, but will not provide the $1.2 million for other renovations.

Mallards General Manager Vern Stenman said the ballpark will still get its needed improvements.

"A couple weeks ago, we came to the second option and said, 'Man, we can do a little bit scaled back project and accomplish 90-95 percent of what we were hoping to do and spend less than half the amount of money,'" said Stenman. "It just made a lot of sense."

City Alder Michael Schumacher said there are still big plans in the works despite the scale back.

"We are actually looking at redesigning, getting a new sound system in here that -- my understanding is -- will focus the sound more into the field rather than ricocheting out into the community because that's been a major concern in this neighborhood," Schumacher said.

Schumacher said that since the Mallards are scaling back the plan, he will try to limit the number of non-baseball events like concerts and fireworks displays.

Once the scaled-back plans are finished they will go through several city committees before appearing before the city council for a final vote.

The Mallards hope to have the ballpark renovated in time for the 2009 season.

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