According to this article in the Times opening day for our new ball park will be April 11, 2014. The Pacific Coast League arranged the schedule so that our team will play the first few games of the season out of town to allow the ball park to be completed.
The October 15, 2013 city council agenda has the latest “Guaranteed Maximum Price Amendment” with the construction company they hired to build the ball park.
Surprise, Surprise!
My initial reading of the amendment yielded these jewels:
- The ball park will enjoy substantial completion by April 28, 2014. That’s a little late for an April 11 opening.
- “Substantial Completion is defined as the Ballpark being ready for a full capacity Triple-A baseball event. However, this may require code “work arounds” such as fire watch, extra stadium staff for security, etc. which costs will be borne by others.” I may be wrong but I think that code work arounds are the same as code violations.
- Final completion of the park is scheduled for August 31, 2014. The regular season ends September 1, 2014.
- The document excludes certain things from the price, like:
- railroad platforms and bridge
- railroad platform foundations
- Missouri and Durango street improvements
- offsite improvements/work (this probably includes the water and sewer work the city is not talking about as well as the pedestrian and road work around the park)
- special construction provisions required at railroad
- porcelain/art signage
- 4 TOPP or 2 TOPP tables and loose chairs
- aluminum and fabric sun shades
Reasons for increase
The presentation for city council includes a page that offers these reasons:
“Construction commenced before delivery of complete design. Only recently has the design advanced to the point to allow the CMAR [Construction Manager at Risk] to set GMP [Guaranteed Maximum Price]”
“Project Schedule — Drives costs up due to overtime, expedited materials, etc.”
“Bids have not been as favorable as projected: Bids have been as competitive as possible; however, many contractors lack the resources necessary to meet the schedule.”
In other words we could have built the ball park for less money if the team played in Tucson or at Cohen Stadium during 2014 and moved to the new ball park in 2015.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
“Borne by others” means additional costs to taxpayers which will be paid for outside of the ballpark budget so that they can say they stayed within budget. As we get deeper into this, watch for costs to be hidden and more and more dollars to be moved around. The city is also going to end up bearing significant event day costs, which should be paid by the tenant.
Unrealistic deadlines, code workarounds, and the real risk of contractors cutting corners to assure that they make a profit, are a recipe for a disaster. If they are already talking about lax permitting and code workarounds, there is little or no concern for safety.
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The El Paso Times hath no shame. Its hackathon of promotion on behalf of Mountainstar and the ballpark continued today with a gushing editiorial about Mountainstar.
The Times continues to spin, distort and play loose with its use of language and facts just to endear itself to the Mountainstar principals and the downtown development beneficaries.
The Times is now officially part of the downtown development promotion and advocacy team as evidenced by the following sample of editorials it has written promoting the ballpark. This list is just some of the editorials and a few Muench columns and does not even include all the other articles that were passed off as news stories.
MountainStar makes good on money promise 10/14/2013
Joe Muench: More anvils hit heads of Downtown ballpark naysayers 09/29/2013
It’s agreed: Ballpark deal stands solid 09/25/2013
New El Paso ballclub lands in good spot 08/22/2013
Ballpark costs rise; still good project 08/05/2013
Triple-A gift: EP should be thankful 07/07/2013
Ballpark price: City comes out a winner 06/21/2013
El Paso ballpark costs: Why another $10 million? 05/28/2013
Path cleared: El Paso on the move 04/16/2013
Demolitions: It’s progress in action 04/12/2013
Joe Muench: It’s time to ‘get it’ on the new Downtown stadium 02/17/2013
Stadium peek: Fits into Downtown motif 02/03/2013
Ballpark: City has prepared well 12/24/2012
Council should vote yes on the Downtown baseball stadium 09/18/2012
Joe Muench: Wow! Now this is great news on the new ballpark 08/26/2012
Private money: Can help finance public projects 07/19/2012
Cohen Stadium: Positive dilemma for El Paso 0/7/14/2012
Joe Muench: Downtown ballpark should help ease tax load 07/01/2012
Ballpark: 2 pluses for El Paso 06/28/2012
Ballpark: Quality-of-life jewel 06/23/2012
Either they don’t realize just how obvious this is to readers or they don’t care. Maybe all this shameless promotion is because they think their own survival hinges on a downtown renaissance. Regardless, they’ve sold out.
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Good grief.
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Maybe we should have the Times staff and the city staff take a seat at the ball park on April 11 and then have them stay there until the first game is over.
Brutus
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Several months ago (shortly before his re election) Carl Robinson said on a Saturday afternoon radio show that the final cost for the stadium will be 97 million. Of course he waited at the very end of the program to make this announcement, because explaining where he came up with that figure would make too much sense. None the less, it appears that he was pretty much accurate.
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