HOK Sport and Charlotte-based Odell Associates have formed a partnership to compete for the job to design a downtown ballpark for the Class AAA Charlotte Knights, an HOK spokeswoman said.
The Knights want to build a $35 million facility with 10,000 seats, 30 suites, a children’s play area, a restaurant and a retail store. It would replace the team’s 16-year-old ballpark in Fort Mill, S.C., a facility Odell designed.
The Chicago White Sox affiliate sent proposals to about 25 designers, said Dan Rajkowski, the team’s vice president and general manager. The Knights will choose three finalists, interview them May 5 and select a design team that includes an associate architect and consultants, according to the RFP.
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The Class AAA Charlotte Knights now play their
games outside the city in South Carolina. |
The franchise, owned by
Don Beaver and
Bill Allen, has committed to privately finance the new facility and is working with city officials to secure public money to pay for infrastructure costs, said
Patrick Zohn, principal for
Gateway Consultants Group. Gateway is a Cleveland firm that has worked for the Knights on their facility matters the past two years.
Charlotte Center City Partners, an organization that markets the city’s downtown, has identified a stadium site that is part of a proposed land swap involving multiple property owners.
Knights officials have said publicly they believe relocating to the core of the city will increase attendance and improve the team’s bottom line. Charlotte finished next-to-last in attendance in 2005 in the 14-team International League, drawing 4,320 fans a game.
This season, the Knights have attracted an average of 5,194 for their first five home games, thanks largely to a crowd of 12,936 at their April 14 home opener, the largest opening crowd since the team moved a few miles across the state border.
Knights Stadium has 10,000 seats and 22 suites.
BREDAR LEAVES HNTB FOR DUNN: Randy Bredar, who helped HNTB win four NCAA Division I-A college football stadium renovation projects during his two-year tenure as its director of national sports architecture, is leaving to become vice president of business development for J.E. Dunn Midwest in the construction firm’s Kansas City office.
Bredar, an architect for 25 years, starts his new job May 1. It will not be sports-specific, but Bredar said he could be involved in J.E. Dunn Midwest bidding for jobs to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, two major league facilities undergoing makeovers totaling $575 million.
“I’ll be helping them pursue and win work in the metropolitan and immediate region,” he said.
Bredar decided to make a career change to cut the number of days he had to travel so he could spend more time with his children, Will, 11, and Hannah, 8.
“That was an integral part of it,” he said.
Bredar was heavily involved in the firm winning the job to design a $166 million expansion and renovation at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, college football’s biggest facility. HNTB previously completed a master plan to improve several Michigan sports venues.
Mike Handelman, HNTB’s chief sales officer, worked alongside Bredar at Michigan and will continue to steer the long-awaited project to build 79 suites and 3,000 club seats, a design that would increase capacity there to 113,133.
“Throughout the life of the Michigan project, we’ve both been engaged with the client,” Bredar said.
Under Bredar’s leadership, HNTB also won jobs to renovate aging stadiums at Cal-Berkeley and Illinois, and Akron selected the architect to complete a feasibility study for a new on-campus facility.
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
