August 07, 2008
More, less of Tiger Stadium could be saved
The new plan for saving part of Tiger Stadium just got newer, with an agreement between the Detroit Economic Development Corp. and the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy to come up with a "solid financial plan" by November 1, with fundraising still due to be completed by March 1. (No clue who gets to determine what qualifies as "solid.") The Conservancy will now be considering two options, one a plan to save a section of the ballpark stretching beyond both dugouts - that'd be 4,000 to 5,000 seats, as opposed to 3,000 seats in the previous plan - the other a fallback option to save just the field and build a baseball museum around it. "We're certainly not concentrating on Plan B," said Consortium member S. Gary Spicer, attorney for Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell. "We want a section of the stadium to be saved and are working extremely hard to do that. Nov. 1 is a very tough deadline but we feel we have much new momentum."
The city council is scheduled to vote on approving the new deal tomorrow. Meanwhile, demolition of the outfield section of Tiger Stadium continues, with construction cranes most recently dropping bits of stadium onto passing traffic.
