Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 | 12:12 p.m.
Reno is getting a new $50 million Triple-A baseball stadium.
Las Vegas is not.
Next, they'll be giving us the flannel shirt off their back.
More than 300 people turned out for the groundbreaking ceremony of a new downtown stadium in Reno that will be the home of the Tucson Sidewinders when they move to northern Nevada next spring.
The stadium, to be built at Second and Evans streets in downtown Reno, will require the demolition of a downtown fire station, which is being replaced with two temporary stations. But the historic Freight House is being incorporated into a stadium design that will seat 6,500 fans. Lawn seating will accommodate another 3,500.
Stuart Katzoff and his father Jerry, restaurant owners on the East Coast, and Herb Simon, a mall developer and owner of the Indianapolis Pacers, are partners in SK Baseball, which bought the Sidewinders.
The total start-up cost for the baseball project is estimated at $81 million. Of this, $27 million is proposed to come from a rental car tax. The Reno Redevelopment Agency also plans to dedicate annual property tax reimbursements from the baseball district to help finance it.
The project will include an entertainment zone and an outdoor plaza with shops and restaurants.
Meanwhile, Cashman Field, the creaky old home of the Las Vegas 51s, is getting a new scoreboard. But no entertainment zone, outdoor plaza, shops or restaurants.
And if somebody sneezes in the locker room, the entire starting rotation is still likely to get sick.
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