The Clock Is Ticking: Questions arise about delay of stadium

Credit: Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman

A spokesman for the Winston-Salem minor-league baseball team said that the team has considered contingency plans in case the park is not done by the spring.

By: By Richard Craver and Laura Graff | JOURNAL REPORTERS
Published: November 20, 2008

Winston-Salem's $22.6 million downtown baseball stadium is expected to be finished by opening day in April, but the team has considered contingency plans in case construction is not done.

A spokesman for the Winston-Salem Warthogs -- the team is changing names but has not yet announced its new nickname -- declined to say what those contingency plans might be.

The spokesman, Kevin Mortesen, said Tuesday that construction on the stadium will go slowly for a short period because of "restructuring of ownership."

"You always think about contingencies, but I'm not going to get in to that," Mortesen said in an interview yesterday. "Anyone you talk to about any sort of construction project, particularly something of this magnitude, anyone would tell you that if you don't have a contingency plan you are not planning properly."

The ownership issue remained unclear yesterday.

Mayor Allen Joines said Tuesday that he had been told that the team's co-owners, Billy Prim and Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, were negotiating a buyout.

Filipowski, however, said yesterday that he didn't understand what Joines meant when he mentioned negotiations between himself and Prim over the team. He declined to go into any details about his ownership and what may or may not be happening with it.

Filipowski said he has had little to do with the new stadium, and that he has not kept up with the daily construction schedule. He said he is optimistic that the stadium will be ready in April.

He said that there is no connection between the team or stadium and the financial status of SilkRoad Technology, Inc., another company that he owns. Earlier this month, SilkRoad laid off fewer than 40 employees, including 12 locally. The company said that the layoffs were meant to consolidate operations among SilkRoad and companies it had recently purchased.

Construction on the ballpark, at Peters Creek Parkway and First Street downtown, started in November 2007 and is scheduled to be finished in April. The city of Winston-Salem contributed $12 million up front for construction.

Steve Adams, who works in sports operations for Wake Forest University, said that no one from the team has asked to use either Ernie Shore Field or Hooks Stadium if construction is not done on time.

The school took over Ernie Shore -- where the Warthogs played -- after the 2008 season. The Wake Forest men's baseball team, which previously played at Hooks Stadium, will play its home games at Ernie Shore in 2009.

Samet Corp., the general contractor building the Winston-Salem stadium, also built a new stadium for the Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball team.

Construction on the Greensboro stadium started in October 2003 and was finished in April 2005, a timetable similar to the Winston-Salem park. Construction on the Winston-Salem stadium started in November 2007.

John Hopkins, the president of the Carolina League -- the league the Winston-Salem team belongs to -- said he had not heard of problems with construction of the Winston-Salem ballpark. He said that it was too early to tell if the stadium would be ready at the start of the 2009 season.

"The games will be played," he said.

He said that the league's annual meeting was coming in December and any problems with the new home for Winston-Salem's team would be discussed then.

■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7334 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.

■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.