Ballparks ready to play, and pay

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Two manicured playing fields. Two towering video boards. Two 360-degree, open concourses. Two sets of brand new seats, and two sets of luxury suites.

Fans will get a double dose of ballpark bliss as TD Ameritrade Park and Werner Park open over a historic four-day period.

But two for the price of one, this is not. And it turns out the metro area's two-ballpark gambit will cost even more than planners expected.

As construction gives way to baseball, the total costs to build in downtown Omaha and outside Papillion are approaching $180 million — about $14 million more than was originally pitched to the public for the dual replacements to Rosenblatt Stadium.

The downtown stadium will cost $3 million extra because of unexpected problems that surfaced at the site, a former rail yard.

Sarpy County is over budget more as a result of cost estimates that officials now say were unrealistically low.

Are the projects worth it?

The metro area will see an economic payoff by keeping two points of civic pride, the College World Series and AAA baseball, both of which are locked up with 25-year contracts.

And it's hoped that the ballparks will spark commercial development at a former farm field in Sarpy County and in north downtown, which has been drawing new restaurants, bars and hotels.

But taxpayers also face some risk over the next 25 years. Two governments issued bonds for the projects and will have to find extra revenue somewhere if the finances fall short. Going into the payback period, some uneasiness over the funding still spans the county line.

With the political debate over the two ballparks long since settled, baseball fans now get a chance to vote with their seats.

It's a rare opportunity for this kind of double-header. In 2009, New York City opened the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets' Citi Field. But outside big league cities, it's likely no other community can match Omaha's dual opening extravaganza.

For the debut of Werner Park on Saturday, the newly named Omaha Storm Chasers were expected to draw a sellout crowd.

Tuesday's opening of TD Ameritrade Park, featuring Nebraska against Creighton, is expected to have a full house of more than 24,000 fans, which would set a record for Creighton.

Stan Meradith, a ballpark architect for DLR Group who designed Sarpy County's stadium and worked on Omaha's initial downtown plans, said he understands the projects have been political hot potatoes. People he meets around the country ask him why the Omaha metro needed two new ballparks.

Meradith said he believes the work is fulfilling baseball needs that are unique to Omaha: a championship-level baseball event and minor league baseball that is just a step below the big leagues.

“In my opinion, both venues are winners,” Meradith said.

Both projects faced unexpected construction challenges.

In Sarpy County, contractors had to remove unsuitable soil and spent additional money to keep the project on schedule through the harsh weather two winters ago.

At the former Union Pacific yard downtown, work on the stadium site — which most recently was a Qwest Center Omaha parking lot — uncovered buried rubble, including old railroad ties. That rubble had to be removed to prepare the land for the stadium. In addition, officials realized they needed to relocate one of two tracks still in use at the southwest corner of the site.

By May 2010, the $128 million construction project grew to $131 million when the city sold an extra $3 million in bonds for the ballpark.

Along with the unexpected expenses, the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority board, which oversaw construction, approved $10.9 million in change orders to the ballpark. But the funds were built into the overall budget, which allowed a cushion for changes.

Among those changes were an under-field draining and air system and a new video board, instead of bringing Rosenblatt's scoreboard to the stadium.

In all, the project will cost $143 million, counting the $12 million to pay off Rosenblatt's remaining debt. The city is using proceeds from Rosenblatt's sale to the Henry Doorly Zoo to pay off the debt.

Roger Dixon, MECA's president and CEO, said officials were prepared to cut the TD Ameritrade Park budget if necessary to pay for the unexpected costs. When the time came to issue bonds, he said, the city was getting low bond interest rates, and ticket sales for premium seats exceeded projections by $3 million a year.

Dixon said the project's costs will “end up right on the money” with the revised budget.

Kathryn Morrissey, chief operating officer of College World Series Inc., said the ballpark exceeds the expectations of series officials, and she believes fans will fall in love with it.

“It's spectacular,” she said.

Sarpy County, which lured the then-Omaha Royals after the team decided a big downtown stadium was a poor fit, will spend about $3 million more than its initial $26 million budget. But that counts the costs for Sarpy County alone.

The whole project will cost at least $36 million considering other ballpark and infrastructure costs falling on the Storm Chasers, the City of Papillion and a taxing district set up for the ballpark and spinoff development. The Storm Chasers are putting up $4 million in ballpark and equipment costs, including some expenses that Sarpy County asked the team to assume as costs increased.

When one set of changes — including directional signs and the scoreboard — became an issue, the Storm Chasers agreed to impose a 50-cent surcharge on ticket sales to generate new revenue for the bond payments.

Midway through the project, officials acknowledged Sarpy County's original budget was too low and wouldn't have built a AAA-caliber ballpark.

County Board Chairman Tom Richards of Bellevue, who voted against the ballpark in June 2009, said he believes county officials got caught up in the excitement over the project and overlooked “some of the considerations that needed to be made.” That said, he said he planned to catch some baseball at the ballpark.

“Is it a good product? Yeah, it's a very good product,” he said.

Sarpy County ought to be proud of building a ballpark, new roads and related infrastructure for that cost, said County Administrator Mark Wayne.

“Everybody did a great job trying to keep those costs as low as we could,” he said. “We got a great stadium for the dollar.”

Alan Stein, the Storm Chasers' president, called the team's new home “spectacular.”

Stein said the ballpark came in at an “unbelievably low price” when compared to other new minor league ballparks that cost more than $60 million.

“It's worth it,” he said. “It's going to be an amenity for all time.”

As baseball fans settle into the ballparks, officials in Omaha and Sarpy County will turn to paying off $226 million in bonds and interest on the projects. Neither project is turning to property taxes for the payoff, although taxes are involved.

Omaha's effort raised $43 million in private donations, and the debt will be paid through ballpark revenues, a higher hotel tax, a higher car rental tax and keno funds.

Despite the absence of AAA baseball, the downtown ballpark is set up to more than cover the debt payments, even if the College World Series were the only tenant.

Creighton baseball and the Omaha Nighthawks professional football team also have booked the stadium, along with the new Red Sky Music Festival. MECA officials remain hopeful a new independent league baseball team will play there.

So far, the revenue streams supporting the project are coming in better than expected, said Pam Spaccarotella, the city's finance director. According to the revenue plan, the city would have more than twice the funding it needs to pay the annual debt service.

“There is no issue with respect to the city having to come up with additional money for the ballpark,” Spaccarotella said.

Sarpy County is largely counting on the ballpark and the surrounding area to cover its debt payments. Annual rent from the Storm Chasers will fund about one-third of the cost, and the team is making an additional $2.35 million in payments in the ballpark's early years.

In addition, the county will turn to an existing lodging tax and keno funds.

The finances also have a measure of uncertainty because development around the ballpark will be a key source of funding as a share of the area's sales tax revenue gets turned over to Sarpy County. The anticipated shops, hotels, offices and housing have yet to sprout at a development called Pennant Place, and the current economics of commercial real estate don't call for a home run in the near future.

If necessary, the county could look to inheritance tax funds, unspent reserves from the county landfill or a higher ticket surcharge, said Wayne, the county administrator.

Developer Roger Langpaul acknowledges that the development project will take longer “than we all hope.” But he remains optimistic about the area's prospects.

“It's a great project,” he said. “It was from the beginning and continues to be.”

Omaha City Council President Garry Gernandt, who represents South Omaha and fought to save Rosenblatt, said he remains concerned about the funding on TD Ameritrade Park, saying it is hard to project that the financing will be successful over the long term.

But he also noted, “We've turned to a new chapter in this city for our baseball fans.”

Contact the writer:

402-444-1128, jeff.robb@owh.com

Video tour of TD Ameritrade Park.

First game played at Werner field.

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