Play ball!

Those words will be heard in Reno for the first time in a long time as the new minor league Triple A team, the Reno Aces, begin their inaugural season in their brand new stadium in downtown Reno. The inaugural game is a sell-out, but there are still seats available for the Saturday and Sunday games.

As the line from the movie “Field of Dreams” says, “Build it and they will come,” but where will they park their cars? Oh, are the fans going to come by car? What a concept, we thought Scotty would beam them over to their seats. Duh! Did we plan this mess thoroughly or what? The official response is that there are plenty of parking spaces downtown and that it’s not a concern. What happens when – or if – this thing does take off as all the principles are forecasting? Then what do we do for parking? Will the baseball parking crowd the parking places of businesses? And if so, so what do we do then, sports fans?

The Regional Transportation Commission’s RIDE, formerly Citifare, the Reno area’s city bus line, could provide a special bus or two from select sites around Reno for a period of time to take the load from the parking in the downtown area of Reno.

This option would mean more ridership for the RTC RIDE system, but it would also take some foresight on the part of all concerned to come to fruition. This shuttle bus idea has worked beautifully for the Great Reno Balloon Races in September and could work initially now and could be curtailed if the idea went thud, like the baseball stadium idea just might do as well. The buses could run for, say, two hours prior to the first pitch and then for two hours after the game is over.

My whole idea is to be more accommodating to the fans of the Reno Aces as they try to get their premiere season a grand kickoff. Don’t get me wrong; I’d love nothing better than to see this minor league team really take off here in the Reno area, but our track record with minor league teams hasn’t been stellar in the past, to which those who have been here for a while will attest. The Reno Aces are a Triple A team, whereas the old Reno Silver Sox weren’t.

The Reno Silver Sox did have quite a few players make it to the big time leagues. This new team should see even more stars rise to the top as the triple A teams are the step below the big-time show.

The only problem I can see for not using the shuttle bus system as with the balloon races is that when these fans are through with the game, they will want to return to where their cars are parked and probably go home. That’s not a bad thing, but part of the business plan for the stadium presupposes that people will frequent the businesses around the stadium before and after the game.

In short, the area will become a hub for entertainment in and of itself. With that in mind, the shuttle bus idea would go thud as well. Great idea, but those kinds of ideas are only allocated to the powers that be.

Larry Wilson is a 50-year resident of Sparks and a retired elementary school teacher. You can contact him at lawilson16@aol.com.