Springfield Music Fest Eyed By Madison Square Garden
3-Day Event May Draw 75,000 Fans To 1,000-Acre Site By JIM KEVLIN
EAST SPRINGFIELD
A second sizeable project has surfaced in the Town of Springfield within days of the first one.
Madison Square Garden Inc., which owns its namesake basketball arena, Radio City Music Hall, and
the New York Knicks and other pro sports teams, is preparing to purchase 1,000 acres between this hamlet
and Continental Road to the southwest to accommodate up to 75,000 fans annually at a three-day music and arts festival.
"Springfield is a great location due to its natural beauty and rolling farmland. The success of the festival
will depend on preserving those qualities of the setting," according to a project outline MSG’s Andrew
S. Lynn, vice president, planning and project development, attached to a cover letter to the Town of Springfield Planning Board.
The site, which has been criss-crossed by surveyors in the past two weeks, was one of three being considered by The Ballparks of Cooperstown, a Dreams-Park-like facility that would include mini-replicas of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, as well as housing, restaurants and a waterpark. Since, however, that project has shifted its focus to sites east on Route 20 near Richfield Springs. Other points in Lynn’s outline include: -
The property will continue on the tax rolls, and cover any costs incurred by the municipality. -
Construction will be limited to "those structures required for the event" and designed to "minimize visual impact." -
Of the 75,000 visitors, most would camp and remain on-site for the duration of the festival. The outline compares what MSG has in mind to "other very successful music festivals" like Coachella in California, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Austin City Limits Festival, and Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Contacted in New York City, Lynn said he wasn’t authorized to comment further about the plans, but – while the outline reports MSG produces more than 250 concerts annually – this would be the company’s first such venture. Mary Clarke, town Planning Board chair, read Lynn’s letter, dated April 28, out loud at the board’s meeting Thursday, May 1, and the initial response was favorable. "This sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Ken Ostrander, who was in the audience. "It’s a huge project," said Henry Miller, the town’s building inspector, but he said building will be limited mostly to restrooms. Not even a permanent band shell is planned, he said. Planning Board member Dave Staley said the project may not be covered by a development moratorium, even if the town board passes the moratorium at its Monday, May 12, monthly meeting, because of the way the law is written. As drafted, the moratorium would apply to subdivisions greater than 25 lots and commercial buildings greater than 100,000 square feet. In an interview, Don Simpson, MSG’s senior vice president, business development, said, while matters are still in the early stages and nothing is firm, many upstate sites were inspected before the preference was narrowed to Springfield. "We love it," he said, "the whole rolling hills aspect, the outdoors expanse of nature. It’s just a beautiful place." MSG got interested in the music-festival idea because, while these kinds of venues have been popping up across the country, "there is not at this time a large festival in the northeastern United States." He declined to say what kind of music the festival would feature, whether folk or rock or whatever. MSG hopes to have the first festival in summer 2010, but Simpson emphasized there are hurdles to be overcome. He expressed hopes of a productive relationship with the municipality and with neighbhors in general. He noted the projects must receive a SEQR permit. He seconded Henry Miller’s impression that the year-’round impact will be minimal. "Certainly, we are going to bring on site for the three-day festival the structures we require," Simpson said. "But they’ll be set up and taken down. "At the end of the day, you’re going to drive by the site and it’s going to look no different than it did at the start." But Town Clerk Jeannette Armstrong was among those urging caution: "It’s a Garden of Eden up here. Before you know it, we aren’t going to have it anymore."
Nolan Ryan Taps Petrosky For VP Of Texas Rangers
Cooperstown’s loss has become Dallas’ gain. Dale Petroskey, who resigned as president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in March, has joined the Texas Rangers as executive vice president of marketing, community development and government relations. The team’s new president, Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan, said he is “thrilled” Petroskey is on “our front office team.” Petroskey began work Thursday, May 1, in Dallas, where his older daughter, Kathleen, is a sophomore at Southern Methodist University. “He’s had a broad and impressive career at world-class institutions," Ryan said. "From those experiences, he has a big-picture view of the world, lots of friends inside baseball and in other fields throughout the country, and understands what it takes to achieve quality. "I’ve seen his passion for baseball. He has a natural way of getting other people excited about the game." A native of Michigan, Petroskey was an aide on Capitol Hill, then an assistant communications director in the Reagan White House, then a senior executive at National Geographic before coming to Cooperstown. "The ultimate goal of (Rangers’ owner) Tom Hicks and Nolan Ryan is to create the best franchise in baseball in every way," he said. "And I’m honored they’ve asked me to be part of their team to help accomplish that. "I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues on the staff, and meeting the fans." Petroskey said he and wife Ann are "delighted" to be moving to Dallas, which will occur after younger daughter Clare, 17, graduates from Cooperstown Central High School at the end of June. Clare will be attending the College of Charleston in the fall. Son Frank, 19, is finishing his freshman year at the University of Vermont. Ryan said his administration’s goal will be to create a World Series contender "year after year, and to bring home a World Series trophy as soon as possible. "A key piece of that puzzle is to bring the Rangers to a wider and more receptive audience, and create a family-like bond with the fans. We know Dale will be able to help lead us in that direction." Petroskey said he and Ann "think the world of Nolan and Ruth Ryan, and we’re thrilled to be here with them." However, he spoke wistfully about Cooperstown, his home for almost a decade. "What’s we’re going to miss most is all our dear friends," he said. "We’ve had a wonderful nine years." The Hall of Fame has named Jeff Idelson, Petroskey’s vice president of communications and education, to succeed him.
Grapefruit Didn't Cut It; So Charlie Got A Cactus
It’s been bothering Charlie Vascellaro since spring training 2007, when he got Sammy Sosa’s autograph on a grapefruit. The Major League teams that do their spring training in Arizona play in the Cactus League, not the Grapefruit League. Charlie had the grapefruit freeze-dried and brought it back to Cooperstown this past February, where you can see it in Andy Vilacky’s Safe at Home Ball Park Collectibles, 91 Main St. But it continued to bother him: Not grapefruit, cactus! In March, Vascellaro – a Baltimore-based freelance writer who frequently visits Cooperstown – found himself back in Arizona, again covering spring training. This time, he vowed, he’d get it right. Thinking it through, it occurred to him no ballplayer would simply grab a piece of cactus. So took a piece of the Pricklypear variety, cut off the spikes and sanded it smooth. Out at the Brewers’ stadium in Mayville, Ariz., who did Charlie encounter but Milwaukee first-baseman and phenom Prince Fielder, last season’s National League home-run leader? Mission accomplished: Prince took it, signed it and gave it back. As Charlie recounted the story the other day, the now-souvenir was being freeze-dried at Floral Keepsakes in Scottsdale. Charlie will be back in town in mid-May, and you should be able to see the cactus next to the grapefruit down at Vilacky’s.
Ag Chief Back From Cuba, Ideal Land For NY Milk, Honey
Find the oldest tractor still in use in Otsego County. It’ll be newer than the newest tractor in use in Cuba. "Mostly, they use oxen," state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, who lives outside Richfield Springs, reported the other day. Hooker had just returned to Albany from leading the state’s first-ever agricultural delegation to the island nation that’s been at odds with the U.S. for almost five decades now. There’s plenty of agriculture in Cuba – mangoes, kiwis, bananas, some dairy – although heat-generating dairy cows don’t thrive in the tropics, he said. But they don’t have a lot of what Upstate New York does. "They are very interested in apples," said the ag chief, whose namesake mountain – Hooker Mountain, near Westville – was settled by his ancestors. "Forest products – they need telephone poles, railroad ties, pallets." The highpoint of the trip, though, was a "Pride of New York" dinner the 17-farmer delegation hosted for top officials of Alimport, Cuba’s agency for acquiring foreign goods. The main course was New York beef tenderloin, marinated, with whipped potatoes and a Schoharie Valley onion-and-vegetable soup. For dessert, New York-style apple-caramel cheesecake and wine ice cream. Hooker was tipped off to Cuba’s possibilities a couple of years ago by a friend, Michael Scuse, the State of Delaware secretary of agriculture, who had just returned from there. Delaware grows chickens and grain, Scuse told him, and there’s plenty of that on Cuba. New York – with its apples, timber, cabbage and farm-related consumer products – had just what the Cubans need, Hooker was told. The commissioner hooked up with Kirby Jones, a former CBS correspondent who interviewed Fidel Castro in 1973 on Cuba’s trading possibilities. Returning home after the broadcast, Jones’ phone rang off the hook – businessmen wanting to know about opportunities – and he soon found himself in the consulting business; since then, he’s made more than 250 trips there. "Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Kansas – Cuba buys a tremendous amount of grains and soybeans," Jones said from Alamar Associates, his Baltimore-based consulting firm. "But you can’t compare Kansas to New York," he continued. "You don’t have Kansas wine. You don’t have Kansas canned fruit. You don’t have Kansas cheese." New York has all of those, he said. Hooker, whose wife, Karen Huxtable, is Bassett Healthcare communications director, said 25 states have sent delegations to Cuba in the past seven years, so he believe New York had to explore the prospects. But he didn’t know what to expect. "I sure was relieved by how nice and how friendly everybody was, the man on the street as well as the government official," he said. "It was a relief. You go down there and you don’t know: How would we be received? We were received wonderfully." Through hosting the dinner and Kirby Jones’ introductions, Hooker’s delegation was able to meet Raul de la Nuez, Cuba’s minister of trade; Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, de la Nuez’s deputy, and Alimport CEO Pedro Alvarez, among others. "I took pains to make sure they understood we weren’t there from New York City," he said, "to lay out for the Cuban media and the government what a tiny land mass New York City is compared with the rest of the state." Visiting a supermarket, Hooker was perplexed to see dairy products from Germany that could just as well come from the Butternuts Valley. He noted that, while U.S. businesses have been straining under this country’s long-standing trade embargo against Cuba, dozens of countries have generated trade relationships worth billions. "They’re not giving us charity," the commissioner said, "but we have a comparative advantage in a lot of products." Due to Cuba’s proximity, freight rates alone are a plus, he said. As it happened, Hooker said, the timing wasn’t the best. "We weren’t there with a contract for potatoes or cabbage when we don’t know what the harvest will be like." However, the New Yorkers were invited back in November to Cuba’s "huge international trade show," and more concrete results may come out of that. The first step was establishing a relationship, and Hooker believes that’s happened. "We all learned is that there is an incredible opportunity for us," he said. "With 9 million residents, 2 million tourists, tourism growing, 90 miles from Florida – it makes an awful lot of sense for us to be there." Labels: 05-09-08, Archives |
