51s’ move to Summerlin seems inevitable, but you can bet city won’t pay for it

Some old and sensitive questions are still being tossed around in the back rooms of Las Vegas City Hall, just as they were a year ago. Will the 51s baseball team relocate to a new stadium in Downtown Summerlin? If so, who will pay for it?

The answers to those and related questions are still as uncertain as they were a year ago, although one thing is now positive: Any expectation that the city would float bonds, or in any other way kick in some funding — as it did when it put up $24 million to build Cashman Field in 1982 — can be thrown out the window. The recent mayoral election made sure of that. As you may recall, the key election issue was criticism over public funding for a soccer stadium.

Still, it doesn’t mean that nothing is happening, aside from the whispers that Cashman Field is a year older and a year more obsolete. After all, when you pack more than 11,000 fans into a stadium that was built to accommodate 9,334, as was the case on opening night this season, you have to assume that your friendly fire marshals had to be looking the other way.

As a postscript, another 9,900 fans filled the old ballpark on the following evening. Now, just try to buy a hot dog or a beer at the limited concession stands in that kind of environment; better yet, try to wait out the lines leading to the restrooms.

But back to reality. Public officials, from the mayor and city councilmen to those in the city manager’s office, openly admit that the more than 57 acres that encompass Cashman Center are a major ingredient in the drawing of a new master plan for downtown Las Vegas. Some even concede that a new ballpark for the 51s in Summerlin is inevitable.

Furthermore, nobody questions the antiquity of Cashman Field: It is the second-oldest baseball stadium in the 16-team Pacific Coast League. Only Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Wash., is older, but that stadium was renovated in 2011 with the help of taxpayer funding, which, as we all know, won’t happen in Las Vegas. And the 14-team International League, baseball’s other Triple-A organization, has only one stadium that is older than Cashman Field, in Pawtucket, R.I. But that ballpark, McCoy Stadium, was renovated in 1998, also with the assistance of public funds.

Add into the equation that the master plan for the back 200 acres of Downtown Summerlin, which will consist largely of middle and upscale housing, a park-like setting and a throwback to small neighborhood shopping, also shows a baseball stadium with the necessary parking just southeast of Red Rock Resort. The stadium has been referred to as the future home of the Las Vegas 51s.

The entire Downtown Summerlin project is being developed by The Howard Hughes Corp., which happens to own 50 percent of the 51s. The other half is owned by a consortium of Southern Nevada businessmen who are just as eager to have their team play in Summerlin.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman feels no responsibility for the city to accommodate the 51s if the team should leave city-owned Cashman Field for Summerlin. That’s because the proposed site is just beyond the city line, into unincorporated Clark County — irrespective of the team still bearing the name Las Vegas 51s.

Last winter City Manager Betsy Fretwell told an audience in Sun City Summerlin that the city is serious about upgrading Cashman Center and not necessarily to accommodate the 51s. Increased tax and economic benefits are high among the priority reasons. In that respect, she said Deputy City Manager Scott Adams was heading a search for ways to best improve the use of the acreage. The search was to include proposals from the public.

“We have carefully reviewed the suggestions we received, many of which were lackluster in nature, and at this point, we’re in a holding pattern,” Adams said in an interview. “The primary issue is the baseball team.”

In essence, he left the impression that the city is waiting for a response from the 51s’ ownership.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t do anything,” Adams said. “It just means that there’s no movement yet.”

Herb Jaffe was an op-ed columnist and investigative reporter for most of his 39 years at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. His most recent novel, “Double Play,” is now available. Contact him at hjaffe@cox.net.