Photos
Recently, the Department of Transportation told the owners of Skyhawks Park that the ballpark, which has operated for 30 years, needs to take down advertising billboards because it is violating federal laws that prohibit signs along state highways.
Bernie Keller, the co-owner of Skyhawks Park, said the DOT’s ruling is a culmination of a lack of cooperation from the city.
“We’ve stayed quiet because all along we didn’t think it made any sense for them not to sit down and do business with us,” Keller said. “Then when this advertisement thing came along, that was the last straw.”
DOT director Pat O’Leary has threatened to turn the park’s owners in for allegedly committing a misdemeanor offense by keeping the signs up. Joe Di Domenico became a co-owner of the park two years ago.
“He won’t even talk to Joe,” Keller said of O’Leary.
The biggest of the advertisement billboards in question are about 10 feet long and are on the park’s concessions stand.
“Give us a reasonable time to transition,” Di Domenico said. “So much of our park’s budget comes out of those advertisements. You can’t just come in and shut off the spigot like that.”
Lori Flemm, Lacey’s parks and recreation director, said the city and Skyhawks Park worked cooperatively on tournaments last year, including a fall league. In July, an adult softball tournament that will draw 85 teams will be at both ballparks.
“We’ve been cooperating really well with them,” Flemm said. “We’re working together on a July tournament. In order to bring in bigger tournaments, we have to partner with Skyhawks.”
Keller said the billboards bring in about $35,000 a year.
“It makes you wonder if you can really succeed in this type of government control,” Di Domenico said. “At what point do people no longer have an incentive to be innovative and productive and hire employees?”
The park employs 39 people, three full time. Keller said that number doesn’t include the umpires used for the 4,000 games the park hosts each year. The park’s biggest weekend tournament last year drew 52 teams from throughout the Northwest, and its economic impact on the city was $800,000, he said.
“Every tournament we have creates an economic value for the area,” Keller said. “They receive a hotel-motel tax, the county and the city. Some of that money they used to build the competition across the street from us. We haven’t received a single dollar from that.”
Keller has offered to manage the city’s Regional Athletic Complex, a five-field ballpark that opened last year. Keller said the park is losing $700,000 a year in operation costs.
A city-owned and privately managed ballpark isn’t unprecedented, Di Domenico said. A Renton field operates under that arrangement.
“If they let us manage their park, they’d not have a single dollar loss,” Keller said. “They’d make money. Guaranteed. We’d pay them a lease agreement.”
Di Domenico is frustrated with the city’s lack of cooperation. He fell short of saying the city wants to put him out of business.
“But they’d be more than happy to take every thing we have here and move it over there,” Di Domenico said. “There’s no reason for them to compete with us on price. Because it doesn’t matter how many millions they spend on a brand-new facility.”
Flemm said she has talked with the Skyhawks owners about forming a citizens committee to bring in tournaments.
“We’re definitely not trying to put them out of business,” Flemm said.
Di Domenico and Keller are working on a land swap that would give the partners the 12-acre parcel that they lease for $50,000 a year. They want to build a domed stadium on that land.
“If we can make that swap, this property becomes ours,” Keller said. “Any way you look at it, it’s a win-win for the school district. They will get a million-and-a-half-dollar piece of property at no cost. It’s the type of cooperation you’d think was normal.”
Gail Wood: 360-754-5443
