Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex

The Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex (also known as Williams Township Ballpark) was a proposed $15 million, 6,400 seat stadium that was slated to be built directly off I-78 in Williams Township, Pennsylvania, near Easton. The project would become one of the most expensive sporting complex failures in recent history.

History

The idea for the stadium was originally devised by Paoli, Pennsylvania businessman Thomas X. Flaherty. Plans were for the new stadium to host the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, as well as the Lehigh Valley Steam of pro soccer's A-League. Flaherty had considered the following factors in building the stadium:

The economic boom of the 1990s meant that more people were attending sporting events than ever before;
Low construction costs and increased access to local, state and federal bonds and grants allowed sporting complexes to be built;
At the time the Lehigh Valley did not have a minor league baseball team within its geographical region. The nearby city of Allentown already had been awarded a baseball team, the Allentown Ambassadors of the independent Northeast League; however, the Ambassadors were thought to be at a disadvantage, as they were slated to play their home games Allentown's aging Bicentennial Park;
Bicentennial Park was already more than fifty years old, had not undergone renovations since the mid-1970s, and was in the middle of a depressed neighborhood without much highway access or parking. Further, the twenty-year-old renovations were made with softball, not baseball, in mind. Flaherty had hoped that a brand-new stadium in a quiet suburban setting, with easy highway access, would draw fans away from Allentown;
The complex was to be built near the city of Easton, Pennsylvania, which is on the eastern side of the Lehigh Valley, whereas Allentown is located on the western section of the valley. Easton would also be a good location to attract fans from the nearby Phillipsburg, New Jersey area, home to about 15,000 people.

The Black Diamonds were owned by the Lehigh Valley Professional Sports Club, which was controlled by Flaherty. The land the stadium was to be built on was owned by a Pennsylvania non-profit organization, Northwestern Human Services (NHS), on whose Board of Trustees Flaherty sat. The non-profit qualified for a $5 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; NHS hoped that its involvement in the stadium would raise its profile in the community and create awareness for its programs.^[1] Plans were for the Black Diamonds to open their 1998 season in the new park; however, construction was delayed and did not commence until December 1998. Plans were changed for play at the stadium to start in the 2000 season. In the meantime, the construction delay caused the Lehigh Valley Steam soccer team to fold, after playing its sole season in 1999 on various high school fields in the area.

Newburgh

In 1998, the Black Diamonds would play their home games at aging Delano-Hitch Stadium in Newburgh, New York as the Newburgh Black Diamonds. Since the Lehigh Valley park would not be ready until 2000, Atlantic League president Bud Harrelson announced the Black Diamonds to would return to Newburgh in 1999—if the city built a new stadium. They did not, forcing the club to play its entire season on the road.

In July 1999, with the stadium only about 60% completed, construction was ceased when funds were exhausted and permanent financing could not be located. Further, the five million dollar grant that was promised by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania upon completion of the facility was officially terminated.

Road Warriors

With no stadium, the Black Diamonds were poised to spend the 2000 season on the road as well, hoping the Atlantic League would finance the team while investors were found to complete construction of the stadium. At a league meeting in January, officials voted that all teams in the league must have a home stadium. This prompted the Lehigh Valley Professional Sports Club to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on February 1, 2000. Without a stadium or an arrangement to play as a road team, the team was forced to scramble, eventually choosing tiny Memorial Park Stadium in Quakertown, Pennsylvania as its home field. Not only was Memorial Park small (a cozy capacity of some 900, all on wooden benches), but the Quakertown Blazers of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League and even the local American Legion team were given schedule priority over the Black Diamonds. Therefore, home games were often played on the weekday afternoons and typically drew less than 100 fans; one infamous contest had a paid attendance of two people.

In October 2000, a group called the United Sports Network (based in Minnesota but led by Quakertown contractor John Clarke) submitted a $2.3 million bid to buy the team from Flaherty. However, on January 29, 2001 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Diane Sigmund rejected the offer because the group did not submit a signed commitment letter to the court by the day of the hearing. Officially, the deal failed because of bad weather in Minnesota would not allow for the deal to be finalized; however, rumors were that although an agreement to purchase the team was reached, the United Sports Network was simply not interested in using the Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex as the Black Diamonds home.

More lawsuits

The next three years would include several bankruptcy creditors, including the Atlantic League, trying to pick at any assets that the Lehigh Valley Professional Sports Club may have possessed. Further, Judge Sigmund ordered a public sale of all the Sports Club's assets, which ironically took place on September 11, 2001. It was found that the only real asset that was worth anything was its affiliation in the Atlantic League. Since it was much easier to simply apply for a team through the Atlantic League, it was an asset that it seemed no one was interested in.

Several lawsuits also followed in the wake of the Sports Complex failure, including one brought by Northwestern Human Services itself, against Flaherty and its former President and CEO, Robert C. Panaccio. The suit claimed that Flaherty and Panaccio used their positions on the Board of Trustees to influence NHS into gifting the land for the construction of the Sports Complex; it was also alleged that the two hid the fact that Flaherty had no independent ability to pay for the stadium, and that they had secretly been using NHS funds to pay for the construction of the stadium even though they made representations to the other board members that no funds were being used. As proof of its claims, NHS produced documentation that Flaherty and Panaccio entered into an agreement for the company to purchase a building owned by Flaherty at an inflated price of nearly $900,000 more than he paid for it four years earlier. The proceeds from the sale were to be used in the construction of the Sports Complex.

Goodbye, Black Diamonds

The phantom Lehigh Valley team would be operated for several more years, financed by the other teams in first the Atlantic League (2002–04), then the Can-Am League (2006–07). From 2002-2004 the club would be called the Pennsylvania Road Warriors and from 2006-2007 simply the Road Warriors; the hapless squads, made up of other team's castoffs, played only away games and served as practically an automatic victory for the league's other teams.

The dream of professional baseball in the Lehigh Valley seemed to be seriously damaged, not only by the complete failure of the Sport Complex and the Black Diamonds, but by the poor economic showing of the Allentown Ambassadors. The Ambassadors did play seven seasons, 1997–2003, but they failed to draw decent enough attendance numbers, finally folded on the eve of the 2004 season. However, in 2006 ground was broken on Coca-Cola Park, a $50.25 million facility with a capacity of 10,000 people, located in Allentown. The stadium is used by the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, who are the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The stadium has been a huge success to date, with most home games selling out.

Current status

In 2004, several newspapers reported rumors that Northwestern Human Services had been in contact with potential developers looking to build office buildings or industrial parks on the land where the half-completed stadium sat. Finally, in early 2005 the bankruptcy case was declared closed. Shortly thereafter the existing stadium structure was demolished, making the Sport Complex one of the very few stadiums in history to be destroyed without a single game ever being played on its grounds.

As of 2011, the building site of the Multi-Purpose Sport Complex has yet to be developed.

References

↑ Brookridge

External links

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