biloxi stadium

A view of MGM Park from the Beau Rivage Casino and Hotel across the street (Mark McCarter/mmccarter@al.com)

BILOXI, Miss. -- Tim Bennett enters the small lounge in the MGM Park press box and is equally amused and uncomfortable with the introduction provided by Biloxi Shuckers general manager Buck Rogers.

"He's spent a quarter of his life bringing baseball to Biloxi," Rogers says.

That's fairly accurate math. The 48-year-old Bennett is president of Overtime Sports, headquartered in Jackson, Miss. It was his effort, aided by the deep pockets of majority owner Ken Young, that swept the Huntsville Stars away to Biloxi and into a 6,098-seat stadium that opened for business on June 6.

Bennett clearly did much of the heavy lifting, both behind the scenes and as the public face of the Shuckers. Biloxi has become his "Cheers," a place where everybody knows his name. He's the starting point as we try to answer a number of questions you have in mind.

Q: A quarter of his life? Seriously?

A: Seriously. He started looking to bring a team to Biloxi in 2004, even as he was manipulating the move of the Atlanta Braves' Class AA team from Greenville, S.C., to Jackson, Miss. Then, as Bennett notes, Hurricane Katrina came along and pro baseball was hardly a priority.

Q: OK, Mark, you've seen a lot of Southern League stadiums? How does MGM Park stack up?

A: I've been in 26 of 28 parks since 1976 and Biloxi stacks up nicely among the newer stadiums. Nobody will top Pensacola's view and Jacksonville is my choice as the best. Biloxi's stadium is efficient, the concourse is wide-open, the amenities for staff and players are excellent and it's a good location.

To nit-pick, there's a little too much bare space on the upper deck facade and it's uncomfortably close to a freeway spur. The press box was designed by somebody who's never written a game story. The right field area needs some imagination.

Q: So what happened in Greenville after Bennett moved the team?

A: The G-Braves moved from an outdated park on the city's fringe after the 2004 season and within a year Greenville built a 5,700-seat downtown stadium for a Class A South Atlantic League team on the site of an old lumber yard. The Drive still averages 5,000-plus fans per game. Greenville's downtown development, by the way, has been closely studied by Huntsville city leaders.

Q: Greenville went with a Class A team, so why not Huntsville?

A: Location, location, location. We're well out of the footprint of any Class A league. Rome, Ga., 112 miles away, is the closest Class A team; it's 250 to the next-closest. Meanwhile, we're smack in the middle of the Southern League map, less than four hours to half the other teams. League owners would love to have a viable franchise back here.

Q: What will it take to bring a team to Huntsville?

A: Southern League president Lori Webb sums it up neatly in one word: Timing.

There must be a franchise looking or willing to move from one city to another and a functional available ballpark here. No team would move set up shop at Joe Davis Stadium now; that's moot, since the stadium is set for demolition next winter.

Less tangibly, there probably needs some passage of time to regain a hunger for baseball in Huntsville among fans and potential sponsors

Q: Who would own a new team in Huntsville?

A: Some local involvement would be advisable, perhaps joining an existing baseball ownership syndicate that has the know-how and connections.

Q: Can we get the Braves farm team in here?

A: Unlikely. Atlanta owns all its minor league clubs. But studies say the major league affiliate is one of the least-important factors in a minor league team success.

Q: OK, that's enough about Huntsville. Tell us more about Biloxi. How did they pay for that stadium?

A: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant earmarked $15 million of Mississippi's share of the BP/Deepwater Horizon settlement to building a park in Biloxi, figuring it'd add to the economic development. Biloxi committed $21 million and MGM, owner of the nearby Beau Rivage, donated the land from its parking lot to the city and has naming rights to the stadium.

Q: Has it worked?

A: Way too early to tell. The average attendance has been 4,000 or so. Rogers says 90 percent of the fans have been local, but expects the tourist trade to more greatly affect attendance in the future. Casinos and resorts are including Shuckers tickets as part of travel packages.

Incidentally, $2 from each ticket goes back to Biloxi's stadium construction fund. With a nice playoff run, this short season alone should repay well over a quarter-million dollars to that fund. The Shuckers also have a $10,000 lease with the city.

Q: Anything else I should know?

A: Yeah. The Shuckers apparel. It's going so fast, local IHOPs are saying their pancakes are selling like Shuckers T-shirts.

Q: How could Huntsville fund a stadium?

A: Thought you were tired of asking about Huntsville. Anyway, it'll need some imagination so as not to dive deeply into taxpayer pockets. Let's put a $40 million tag on the park and land, keeping inflation in mind.

We'll not get too bogged down into it, but sell naming rights to some local company for $7 million or so (do I hear Polaris Park, anyone?), require $3 million or so investment from the owners and create a bond issue that would be repaid by a $2 tax on every ticket; that plus the lease and parking revenue would be $8 million over 10 years.

The adjacent land on stadium grounds can be a money-maker, leasing for office condos, restaurants, retail and lodging.

The stadium only needs to have capacity for 7,000 - 6,000 in permanent seats, 400 in suites, space for 600 more on a berm.

Q: One more question.

A: OK.

Q: Do you have Tim Bennett’s phone number?