Evansville plans $25 million stadium

EVANSVILLE -- City officials are pushing ahead with plans to begin construction of a $25 million downtown minor-league baseball stadium in June.\nThe city's Redevelopment Commission approved resolutions Tuesday to allow the borrowing of up to $13 million and the hiring of companies to design the 6,000-seat stadium.\n"It looks like we'll be playing ball next April," Niel Ellerbrook of the mayor's stadium implementation committee told the commission. "All the pieces are falling in place."\nEd Hafer of Hafer & Associated of Evansville, one of the stadium designers, said the construction work could be completed in 10 months.\nThe project, however, has encountered significant public opposition, and it will take several weeks or months before city officials will know whether property tax money will be needed to finance it.\nMayor Russell Lloyd Jr. has asked the Legislature to approve a 5 percent auto rental tax that could raise $12.8 million over 20 years for annual stadium bond payments.\nThe city also plans to use $10 million in payments from Casino Aztar to pay for the stadium.\nEvansville native Don Mattingly and Cal Ripken Jr. announced last month that they would be part of an ownership group that expected to move a Class A minor-league team from Albany, Ga., into the stadium next year.