A baseball diamond is still there, but not much else.
Now Detroit’s Economic Development Corporation wants to see proposals to redevelop the former site of Tiger Stadium.
The EDC wants to establish a new headquarters for a Detroit youth sports league, Detroit PAL, along with three zones for mixed-use development at the site in the Corktown neighborhood.
The proposed plan should also have a youth baseball diamond “in the same area as many legendary baseball stars played.”
The Detroit Free Press put together this image showing the redevelopment plan.
More from the EDC:
“This vision for the site represents the best combination of input from all the significant stakeholders — the City of Detroit, the Corktown community, and all those who have fond memories of the great baseball games played at Tiger Stadium,” said George W. Jackson, Jr., president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth Corporation… “Every time a youngster runs a base on the youth field it will honor the legacy of the field itself, while every dollar invested in the surrounding development will enhance the viability of Corktown’s future.”
Tiger Stadium stood for many years after the team relocated to its current location in 2000. The city tore down the old stadium from 2008 to 2009, and plans for redevelopment have been controversial.
John Gallagher and Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press report one of the main sticking points has been over the fate of the former site of the original baseball diamond:
… where Tiger greats including Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton played. A nonprofit group called the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy has demanded that the playing field be preserved and has lobbied for a minor league baseball team or some other club to continue to use the site for baseball. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., obtained a $3.8-million federal earmark of funds for that purpose in 2009 to be controlled by the conservancy. The use of that earmark and the conservancy’s reluctance to cede control of it to those who wanted to redevelop the entire site has generated still more controversy in recent years.
Maybe these guys would approve of a plan that includes kids running the bases on their former field:
Go here to check out the request for proposals.
