URI report offers options for future of McCoy
With the Pawtucket Red Sox’s
decision in August to leave the city for Worcester at the start of the 2021
season, state and local officials are now turning their attention to the future
of what has been the minor-league team’s home for nearly a half century.
Deciding what’s next for the
76-year-old, city-owned McCoy Stadium may take many months, but a public policy
report written by two University of Rhode Island students could provide the
necessary research to start the conversation.
Bridget Hall, then a URI sophomore,
speaks to a gathering at the Rhode Island Statehouse in 2016 about a public
policy report about possible future uses for Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium.
“The Future of Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium” was written in
2016 by undergraduates Bridget Hall and Michael Steiner for an honors public
policy course, under the guidance of Associate Professor of Political Science
Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz.
The 22-page report presents a full range of options that were the result of extensive research into how other municipalities have attempted to repurpose vacant stadiums, including an analysis of costs and of how those options would work in Pawtucket.
The 22-page report presents a full range of options that were the result of extensive research into how other municipalities have attempted to repurpose vacant stadiums, including an analysis of costs and of how those options would work in Pawtucket.
But in 2016, PawSox owners committed
to remaining at McCoy through the 2020 season, so the impact of the report was
not immediately obvious, said Pearson-Merkowitz, who this April was named
director of URI’s Social Science Institute of Research, Education and Policy
Michael Steiner, then a URI junior,
presents his research about repurposing McCoy Stadium at a 2016 Statehouse
meeting.
“It’s certainly more valuable now,”
said Hall, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in history and
political science. “Hopefully our research can help lawmakers see that there
are innovative ideas for re-inventing McCoy Stadium that can carry Pawtucket
into a new and bright future.”
Options include what the students’
research revealed to be the most common outcomes for ballparks left abandoned –
demolishing the stadium; selling it “as is”; renovating it for use by a
different team or sport; and converting it into a public park. The report’s
final option highlights two inventive possibilities – repurposing the historic
city landmark as much-needed housing or as a sports-focused public high school.
“The housing and high school ideas were the ones our team found the most innovative and exciting,” Hall said. “However, it’s not up to the policy brief to provide a solution or even a recommendation. The brief acts as a tool showing the relative merits and challenges of all the viable potential solutions.”
Adaptive reuse of the park, the
report cites, can be costly because old buildings usually require extensive
renovations, making options to demolish the stadium and start from scratch
attractive. But the report notes, “a deep connection like the one between
Pawtucket and McCoy Stadium may make repurposing a more palatable option than
demolition.”
Indianapolis’ Bush Stadium is noted
as a highly successful and innovative example of reuse. Bush Stadium, the home
of the Double-A Indianapolis Indians until 1996, was turned into a 138-unit
housing complex.
In 2013, Stadium Lofts opened retaining many of the stadium’s historic character, such as the box office, the playing diamond and field lighting. The project cost $13 million, helped by $5.3 million in grants from the city and state, the report notes.
In 2013, Stadium Lofts opened retaining many of the stadium’s historic character, such as the box office, the playing diamond and field lighting. The project cost $13 million, helped by $5.3 million in grants from the city and state, the report notes.
Redeveloping McCoy into housing
could be “an exciting option,” the report states, noting a number of state and
federal funding programs that support mixed-income housing developments.
“We’re so short on housing here and
that would actually be an economic benefit to the city,” Pearson-Merkowitz
said. “We have this example that would save the cultural icon of the stadium
while bringing a needed good to the city.”
A sports-focused public high school
is another innovative approach, but one that has never been tried. The school
could “meet the academic and athletic needs of Rhode Island’s high school
baseball and softball players,” the report says. The report cites several
private sports academies, including the multi-sport IMG Academy in Florida
that, at the time of the report, had 900 students from pre-kindergarten through
high school.
“This conversion,” the report notes,
“would be an exciting opportunity for Rhode Island to adapt an idea from the
private sector to provide a unique environment for students while also
repurposing a vacant cultural landmark.”
When the URI report was presented at
a 2016 Statehouse gathering arranged by The Collaborative, an organization that
connects higher-education researchers with public policymakers, a Pawtucket
legislator was fascinated with the high school option, Pearson-Merkowitz said.
“We had a number of questions from
representatives at the presentation,” added Hall. “A Pawtucket representative
was fairly hopeless about the PawSox leaving, but after learning of all the
options, he said he was more optimistic about what they could do with the
stadium.”
Hall, who grew up in North
Smithfield and frequently attended games at McCoy, said her
familiarity with the state and Pawtucket helped her analyze the options for how
they would fit with the city. A big part of the early work on the report for
her and Steiner was getting to know the city’s economics – housing costs,
income, employment – along with understanding the PawSox’s financial agreement
with Pawtucket.
For her part, Hall focused on what
other municipalities had done in similar cases, finding and researching 90
ballparks around the country that had been abandoned between 1999 and 2014. “It
wasn’t as easy as a Google search,” said Hall. “You really have to think
outside the box. It’s like being a detective. You have to be flexible and
innovative in your research skills.”
Steiner concentrated on the
financial aspects of each stadium example, along with researching funding and
costs for different options. The pair then categorized the stadium case studies
by outcome to come up with a list of options, and further analyzed how those
options would work in Pawtucket.
Each of the first four options –
demolition, selling the property as is, renovating for use as a different type
of stadium, and converting it into a public park – carry their pros and cons,
Hall said.
“It was important to address some of
the most obvious options,” she said. “Aside from being valid solutions that
might prove to be the best options for Pawtucket, they showed that we had
seriously considered all options rather than a chosen few. I think the process
of considering the status quo – leaving the stadium where it is – and
justifying why the status quo was inadequate taught me a tremendous amount
about the policy process.”