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Franklin's taxpayers would borrow $10.5 million to develop a city-owned stadium for a new minor league baseball team, under a proposal submitted to local officials.

The stadium would host a Frontier League team, owned by Mike Zimmerman, and would be built at The Rock, a sports complex.

Its funding would need Common Council approval. Zimmerman, who announced the proposed project in January, hopes to have the stadium ready for the 2015 season. The funding proposal is to be reviewed by a city stadium task force at its Tuesday night meeting.

Zimmerman, who owns The Rock, would provide $4 million as his initial investment in the new team. That would cover the team acquisition fees and first year operating budget, according to a report submitted by Zimmerman's consultant, Johnson Consulting.

The report says Zimmerman has so far invested $10.5 million developing The Rock, which covers 128 acres at W. Loomis Road and S. 76th St. Its operations include a ski hill, six baseball fields; a patio with a bar area, and a gravity bicycle trail.

If the city funds the new stadium, its annual debt payments would be around $1.1 million over 20 years, the report said. That would total $21.5 million.

Lease payments from the team, and other revenue sources, could be used to make those debt payments, it said. Those other sources could include new property taxes generated by commercial development within a tax incremental financing district that includes The Rock.

The stadium would generate annual spending of $11.03 million, the report says.

That includes $5.17 million in direct spending on baseball tickets, meals, hotel rooms and other items by people attending games, and $3 million spent by the baseball team on its operations.

The figure also includes $1.63 million of "indirect spending." That refers to respending of direct spending, such as a restaurant buying more food from its vendors because of increased business tied to the baseball stadium.

Finally, there would be an estimated $1.23 million of "induced spending," which refers to spending by employees of businesses that benefit from the stadium--such as restaurant wait staff.

The estimated direct spending would come from the approximately 124,000 people attending roughly 100 annual events at the stadium, which would have capacity for 3,100 people.

The estimated number of events include 48 regular season minor league games, 15 college baseball games, 15 high school games, along with concerts, corporate meetings, charity softball games and other events.

The study bases those numbers on the experience of other minor league teams, including some in the Class A Frontier League, which has 14 teams in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

Without elaborating, the study says because Franklin is small, most of the visitors to the stadium would come from outside region -- "bringing their dollars with them."

However, the study also says most fans would not stay overnight to attend games. It estimated 10% of minor league game fans would stay at hotels.

A typical visitor would spend $10 on a game ticket, and $25 on meals, retail and "incidental expenses," the study said.

It didn't break down how much of that $25 would likely occur on meals and other items at the stadium, as opposed to spending at Franklin businesses beyond The Rock.

The study also says Franklin won't have a minor league team without a city-funded stadium.

"As a rule for Single A minor league venues, a team plays in a publicly funded stadium and pays a negotiated lease payment," the report said. "There is no way sufficient profit is made to support a team /tenant in a way that can fund the cost of the stadium out of team operations."