BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[stadium]](/editions/1998/10/08/stadium_200x137.jpg)
The Reds released this drawing to show how a ballpark at the Wedge site could integrate with the riverfront.
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With less than a month before Hamilton County voters cast a vote in the baseball stadium debate, the Reds unveiled a vision Wednesday of what a new riverfront ballpark could look like.
The new drawing by local architect Michael Schuster marks the Reds' first major foray into the Issue 11 campaign, which aims to determine the team's new home for the next 30 years.
Reds Managing Executive John Allen said Wednesday's news conference was the team's effort to present the community with a vision for a new riverfront stadium and reiterate the team's unwavering support for the riverfront location.
"The Reds organization and ownership supports the riverfront location," he said, adding that the team thinks the riverfront spot provides better access and parking for fans, which would lead to better attendance.
Mr. Allen made it clear that the image the Reds unveiled Wednesday is not what the new ballpark would look like. HOK Sport, the Kansas City firm hired by the Hamilton County to design the new stadium, had nothing to do with the drawing.
Rather, the drawing attempts to show how a new riverfront ballpark could tie in to the riverfront and sit closer to downtown.
Mr. Schuster said at the news conference that he drew the image by taking a picture of how the site looks now, tracing that picture onto paper and slowly replacing what exists now with the riverfront ballpark image he's been promoting for nearly two years.
Mr. Allen said Mr. Schuster will be working with the Reds as the team's representative in the lengthy process of designing a new riverfront ballpark.
The campaign pushing for a stadium at Broadway Commons, at Broadway and Reading Road, dismissed the drawing as a "joke."
"What this drawing gives is a false sense of what a riverfront ballpark would look like," said Melisa Rottinghaus, Broadway's campaign coordinator. "The Crown is not a one-story facility. And it shows that most fans would look at the Crown, not the river."
She said the drawing exaggerates the width of the Ohio River, the amount of park land available between the stadium and the river and ignores that a large parking structure could end up being part of the stadium's design.
Mr. Schuster said the drawing isn't intended to be an exact plan. He said it's a concept that accurately illustrates what the team and county would like to accomplish by tying a new ballpark into the riverfront and downtown.
"According to the experts, these things are possible," he said.
Hamilton County has a deal with the Reds to build a $297 million ballpark on the riverfront to open in 2002 or 2003. Broadway backers pushed to put the stadium measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Issue 11 asks voters to create a county charter to require the county to build any new Reds stadium at the Broadway site.
Mr. Allen refused to say what the team will do if Issue 11 wins, saying only that the team expects the riverfront to prevail.
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