The city of Homestead may demolish its deteriorating baseball stadium, built nearly 30 years ago to serve as a spring training site for Major League Baseball teams.
The city government has solicited bids to demolish the pink stadium, formally known as the Homestead Sports Complex, which hasn’t been used for decades.
Dennis Maytan, director of parks and public works in Homestead, told the Miami Herald the stadium was “a field of dreams” for the city that “just never came true.”
Four companies have offered to tear down the stadium for prices that range from $594,80 to more than $1 million. City commissioners may discuss the bids at their July 10 meeting and could decide the stadium’s fate as soon as July 25.
What might replace the stadium is unclear. Selling the land beneath the stadium is an option the city could pursue. But the land is unsuitable for most types of development because of its location near Homestead Air Reserve Base.
After the 6,000-seat stadium was built in 1991, the Cleveland Indians agreed to make it the team’s spring-training site.
But on August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew did so much damage to the stadium that Homestead had to rebuild it. After surveying extensive damage to the rest of Homestead, the Indians canceled a 20-year agreement to use the stadium for spring training.
The city, which now pays about $500,000 a year to maintain the stadium, never found another Major League Baseball team to replace the Indians. [Miami Herald] – Mike Seemuth