The Roanoke Times: Victory Stadium

A group fighting to save Victory Stadium opened a downtown office Monday, the same day Roanoke City Council approved leasing land to serve as a construction staging area for a new facility.

The Citizens for a Sensible Stadium Decision will try to persuade four council members to scrap a unanimously approved plan to build an $18 million high school football stadium and amphitheater complex off Orange Avenue. The new facility will replace 60-year-old Victory Stadium, which would likely be torn down. The group argues that renovating Victory Stadium is better than the Orange Avenue project because it has lower projected cost, better parking and less traffic congestion.

"We're going to make them vote on something, somehow," said Brian Wishneff, a Roanoke-based consultant and a chief spokesman for the Victory Stadium group.

At this point, however, a council majority says the group should take up another cause.

The council Monday approved the city's lease of the staging area. Mayor Ralph Smith, the only council member currently receptive to saving Victory Stadium, cast the lone opposing vote.

Site grading on the new stadium is supposed to begin this month, and construction is scheduled to start in October, City Manager Darlene Burcham said.

After its meeting Monday, council members Bill Bestpitch, Rupert Cutler, Alfred Dowe and Linda Wyatt all said they remain firmly committed to the Orange Avenue site and don't believe that anything could change their minds at this point.

It makes no sense for the city to pay for a major renovation of Victory Stadium because of its location in a floodplain that's been swamped numerous times over the years, Cutler said.

Dowe added that he's spoken with high school football players and their parents who agree with the council's decision to build the new stadium - and their opinion carries the most weight with him. Dowe also questioned the timing of the advocacy group's opposition, which comes months after the council approved the Orange Avenue project and years after it started discussing what to do with the aging Victory Stadium.

Wyatt made a point Monday to ask the city administration how much money the city continues to spend on Victory Stadium. The city operated the stadium at a $225,000 to $230,000 deficit during the past fiscal year, Burcham said.

The city's philosophy behind the hybrid facility is to use the amphitheater to generate more revenue from concerts and other entertainment events. That money can be used to reduce its operational costs.

The advocacy group doesn't buy the city's reasoning. It began a petition drive to ask the city council to let voters make a choice, hoping to save Victory Stadium as a historic landmark. Voters should decide in a November referendum whether more than $17 million from bonds already sold for the new stadium should be used for that purpose, the group believes.

Council members questioned the precedence of such a referendum and wondered if it's even possible.

Wishneff acknowledged the odds his group is facing, but he said it will push on. It's now headquartered in an office building at First Street and Kirk Avenue and has a Web site, http: / / info@

supportvictorystadium.com.

Also Monday, the council:

Endorsed a Bestpitch-Cutler initiative to lobby state and federal leaders for rail alternatives to complement planned improvements to Interstate 81.

Approved raises for its five appointed officers for the 2003-04 fiscal year that starts July 1. Four - Burcham, City Clerk Mary Parker, Auditor Drew Harmon and City Attorney Bill Hackworth - will get the same 2.25 percent average raise that was approved for all other city workers. Finance Director Jesse Hall, however, will get a raise closer to 10 percent because the council recently gave him the added responsibility of overseeing the city's real estate valuation department.

Approved a new policy to charge home and business owners sliding-scale fees for excessive amounts of false security alarms that city personnel must respond to.