University strikes out on stadium

After months of negotiations, an east Sacramento developer felt requests made by the CSUS administration were out of the ball park and dropped out of a deal that would have upgraded the existing baseball and softball facilities to Division I standards.

"We thought it was going to happen. We needed it for our baseball and softball programs," said Judith Davidson, director of the CSUS Athletics Department.

The plan was for the developer to lease the land from the CSUS Foundation, build the stadiums and lease them back at no cost to the athletics programs.

At the end of two years, after accruing 24 months of equity, the developer would then donate the stadiums to the school.

As reported in Sunday's Sacramento Bee, the developer , who wishes to remain anonymous, demanded a meeting with the university administration to complete the donation.

With plans made to break ground within six days, a clause stipulating that the developer would donate the stadiums in two years was included in the final contract.

There could be no such clause because the developer would lose additional tax breaks, the developer told the Bee.

At that final meeting in September, the developer told Edward Del Biaggio, vice president for administration/business affairs that for the project to happen, he'd have to take the risk.

Del Biaggio did not return calls for comment.

"Everyone is crushed. I have no answers," Davidson said.

The developer originally offered $1 million for building a new baseball facility.

The terms of the contract were negotiated for the next three years. Mernoy Harrison, former vice president of administration, took over the negotiations in 1994 under the condition that a softball facility would be included.

During this time, the costs of construction doubled raising the investment for the developer to $2 million.

"I can't comment on the issue right now. This is really a hot subject," said Solomon Fulp, a member of the Hornet Athletic Foundation.

During the process, the negotiations were taken over by Del Biaggio, who told The Bee he was concerned over what would happen to the project if something happened to the developer before he donated the stadiums to CSUS.