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The Ball Park is a baseball stadium located in and owned by the Town of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The stadium has a seating capacity of 6,000 and was a former Triple-A baseball facility that was almost destroyed by years of neglect until a community organized volunteer effort revived the stadium. The Ball Park is now the home of the Old Orchard Beach Surge of the independent North Country Baseball League. This is the first professional baseball team in Old Orchard Beach since the Maine Phillies left in 1988.〔(Pro baseball rekindles memories on return to Old Orchard Beach )〕 Prior to the arrival of the Surge, The Ball Park was home to the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (2011) and the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (2012-2014).〔(Raging Tide baseball team won’t return to OOB in 2015 )〕 ==History== The Ball Park was opened in 1984. It was built primarily for baseball and was the home field of the Triple-A International League's Maine Guides from 1984–87 and the Maine Phillies in 1988. The Guides were the top minor league affiliate for Cleveland from 1984–1986 and the Philadelphia Phillies from 1987-1988. The owners of the team believed that, due to the large amount of vacation traffic that the town enjoys in the summer months, numerous vacationers would attend games. However, after only five years in existence, the Maine franchise relocated to Moosic, Pennsylvania, following the 1988 season. Although attendance was not a major problem during the franchise's existence, the park was hampered by three main driving forces: First, in the summer the stadium was home to a large population of Maine Black Flies that pestered fans. Second, there was only one road leading to and from the stadium, thus creating a traffic nightmare. Finally, soon after the stadium was built, current stadiums expanded and new ones were built to make it normal for most Triple-A stadiums to hold well over 10,000 people, far above the 6,000 that the newly constructed Ball Park held. Stadium owner Jordan Kobritz fell behind on debt payments to The Finance Authority of Maine which had lent Kobritz the funds to construct the ballpark in 1984. In July 1987, Kobritz agreed to relinquish the deed to the ballpark to The Old Orchard Beach Town Council in exchange for releasing Kobritz from his financial obligations. After the Guides left, the stadium was leased to a group called, Seashore Performing Arts Center (SEAPAC), who hosted many concerts in the late 80s and early 90s. The concerts ceased after local residents complained about the loud noise late at night. By the 2000s, the Ballpark was shuttered and the facility had suffered from years of neglect. The grass turned into brush and overgrowth, and the walls of the facility started to fall down. The most frequent guests to the stadium were drug users, arsonists, and vandals. In 2005, Old Orchard Beach considered selling the site that held the ballpark, as well as the site that included Old Orchard Beach High School's athletic fields. Then Town Manager Jim Thomas speculated at the time that the site could be sold for $2.5 million and generate $1 million per-year in property taxes. To make matters worse, a major fire caused by a lightning strike damaged the facility on June 21, 2007. In June 2008, the town placed a referendum question on the local election ballot proposing to sell the stadium and create room for a condominium complex. However, much to the relief of the 10,000 citizens of the town, the question was largely voted down. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Ball Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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