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Dunkin' Donuts Park Makes Its Long Awaited Debut Tonight In Yard Goats' Home Opener

After "two years of construction, two canceled opening days," $10M in cost overruns, an "ongoing lawsuit against the city and an entire season played on the road," the Double-A Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats will play their first game Dunkin' Donuts Park tonight, according to Steven Goode of the HARTFORD COURANT. The team's debut at $71M Dunkin' Donuts Park just north of downtown will "mark the first time professional baseball has been played in the city since the Hartford Chiefs left Morgan Bulkeley Stadium in the South End" in '52. Tonight's game will also "mark the end of tumultuous journey for the team formerly known as the New Britain Rock Cats" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13). Team officials said that the ballpark can "accommodate up to 8,000 people, with standing room only included" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13). In Hartford, John Altavilla notes Yard Goats GM Tim Restall yesterday was in "meetings with the support staff, going over final details." Restall said, "I always have said that I won't relax until the first pitch is thrown. It will be exciting when it finally is, but we can't take the foot off the gas. You just keep going and hope that everything is where you want it to be." The game has been sold out for a while, but yesterday the Yard Goats "did sell standing-room-only tickets." Restall: "There's been so much talk about it and now we're able to let people into Dunkin' Donuts Park. It's no longer a construction site. It's an entertainment experience" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13).

WHAT A GEM: In Hartford, Jeff Jacobs writes Dunkin' Donuts Park is "better than nice." Jacobs: "If you walk into this ballpark, shrug and say, 'Nothing special,' you're lying." Yard Goats Owner Josh Solomon said, "What we did is we went on a road trip to the best minor league parks that are out there and we basically saw some elements that we really liked. We tried to incorporate them, but at the same time we wanted an intimate park. It wasn't our goal to have the largest park" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13).

MONEY PIT: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joseph De Avila noted Hartford is "still figuring out how to make Dunkin' Donuts Park work financially." Hartford, a city of about 124,000 residents that is "facing a fiscal crisis and a high poverty rate," is on the hook for $68.6M in bonds "issued to cover most of the construction" of the new ballpark. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin "plans to borrow" $20M in bonds in the coming weeks to "cover a shortfall in the city’s budget," and next year the city is already projecting a $65M deficit. Bronin said, "There is no question it’s better for the city to have a baseball park than a vacant parking lot" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/12). In Hartford, Dan Haar writes with the opening of Dunkin' Donuts Park it is "time to draw a clear, bright line: On one side, the issues around the ballpark. On the other side, the games inside the ballpark." Keeping them separate can "elevate the city without sacrificing the legitimate points those voices are rightly tolling." Haar: "No, it's not critical that all 1.2 million metro Hartford residents buy a ticket and support the team. What matters is that anyone who might want to see the Yard Goats play in person feels free to do so without worrying about those other issues while the pretzels are hot and the ball is in play." Here is why this matters: The economic point of "spending all this time and money on the team was not to make money" on the ballpark. Everyone knows by now that ballparks "lose money, period." Haar: "The real point was to make Hartford -- the city and the metro area around it -- a place where people want to be" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13). A HARTFORD COURANT editorial states that for tonight's Yard Goats game, "everything is sweet, and the worst is in the past." The editorial: "The wait was agonizing. ... It's all behind them. Now they will be treated like minor league royalty" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13).

LOCAL FLAVORS: In Hartford, Chris Brodeur notes in a "nod to the city's Latino population, all home games will also be broadcast in Spanish" on WPRX-AM by the father-son duo of Danny and Derik Rodriguez, making the Yard Goats one of just three teams in minor league baseball to have a "bilingual radio presence." Also, the team will "maintain its strong social-media presence, which stoked anticipation even as home games were on hold." Score updates on Twitter, where @GoYardGoats is "followed by more than 13,000 users, will come with a healthy dose of snark." And everything from batting practice to clubhouse jam sessions "will be streamed on Facebook" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13). Also in Hartford, Korky Vann notes in July, the Yard Goats will "devote an entire weekend to the memory of Hartford's long-departed NHL team with a 'Whalers Alumni Weekend'" (HARTFORD COURANT, 4/13).

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