The Dublin, CA City Council recently indicated its support for the concept of building a minor league baseball stadium and hosting a team in the nascent North American Baseball League (NABL). The project’s visionary is Dublin resident, travel industry executive, and Centerfield Partners, LLC CEO Brian Clark. If Clark can identify a development partner to bring his vision to reality, the stadium and parking lot will hold 3,000 to 4,000 visitors and potentially 1,000 to 1,200 cars.

The stadium would be used for 40-50 minor league baseball games per year, while other groups could use the facilities for the remainder of the year. This arrangement would be similar to the one at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Residents would be able to use the stadium for other events such as soccer, lacrosse, softball, or high school baseball tournaments throughout the year. Some of the locations being considered include parcels next to the West Dublin BART Station, Dublin Crossing across from the East Dublin BART Station, and an area within the new Fallon Village in East Dublin.

“Professional Minor League Baseball is a fun, affordable, family-friendly and community-oriented sports entertainment option,” said Clark. “We believe this (stadium and team) would bring substantial economic, social, and civic benefits to further enhance the quality of life in our dynamic community.” Clark also noted that the Dublin team would stage fun activities, promotions, fundraisers, and giveaways at games while visiting schools and taking part in other community activities.

As the NABL is an independent organization, the Dublin team would not be affiliated with a Major League Baseball franchise. San Rafael, a northern California city that already has an available ballpark, expects to have its NABL team take the field in May 2012.

In a letter to Dublin City Manager Joni Pattillo, Clark noted that the minor league baseball team would simply be the “primary tenant” in the proposed stadium concept. That term could imply that Clark is hoping the City of Dublin would finance and possibly build the stadium and parking facility using public dollars.

Thinly veiled comments from City Manager Pattillo and Councilmember Don Biddle warned against the use of public funding to finance such a venture. The general sentiment of the current Council seems to favor a privately-financed project similar to the San Francisco Giants AT&T Park project in China Basin.

While each of the Councilmembers indicated general support for the concept, Councilmember Kasie Hildenbrand advised caution while moving ahead on the minor league baseball stadium concept. Previous to her career as a Councilmember, Hildenbrand was an avid critic and protest organizer dedicated to blocking the proposed effort to bring the Oakland A’s baseball team and a San Jose Sharks practice facility to Dublin. Hildenbrand noted that the proposal to bring a minor league team to Dublin is different from the Oakland A’s and San Jose Sharks initiatives, since the ballpark will only hold a tenth of the visitors and would not be built in the middle of a residential area.

In all likelihood, the effort to bring minor league baseball to Dublin will only be successful if Clark is able to secure a privately-financed deal for the land next to the West Dublin BART Station. The current parking structure could hold over 700 vehicles, and guests could simply hop on BART to get to and from the games. The combination of a parking structure and BART would reduce the land requirement to as little as eight acres on a parcel that is in desperate need of a kick-start. Perhaps Clark’s minor league baseball team is just what Dublin needed to resurrect the dead-on-arrival West Dublin BART Transit Village.