Summer sports at Bradner limited to baseball – Olean Times Herald

OLEAN — Baseball will be the lone sport at Bradner Stadium for most of next summer, per the city’s new stance.

“The city of Olean has elected to keep the Bradner Stadium field in a baseball-only configuration from April 1, 2016 to August 13, 2016,” Mayor Bill Aiello wrote in a letter Wednesday to Southern Tier Diesel football coach JR Bennion.

Aiello said it’s in the city’s “best interest,” noting considerable fanfare for the Olean Oilers of the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) and the potential for the city’s multimillion-dollar investment in Bradner to draw other marketable baseball events. An announced crowd of 2,525 fans attended the Oilers’ championship win at the stadium last summer.

Olean can’t risk, he said, cancelling baseball games if the field becomes worn from football.

Bennion said his team feels “betrayed,” noting the Diesel of the Northeastern Football Alliance (NFA) helped the $1.5 million upgrade of the nearly 90-year-old stadium. He and his players, enthusiastic adult amateurs who have called Bradner home since 2009, helped to remove its weathered and splintered bleachers to install new ones, anticipating their fan base, while admittedly smaller, would sit there.

Bradner was touted as a multi-use facility intended to be shared, Bennion said.

“What’s going to be the best thing for the city here? We have opportunities,” Aiello said. “We could bid on the (NYCBL) all-star game, which the Oilers have done. We have opportunities of getting Little League baseball in here with tournaments, the Senior League and that.

“Picture having the all-star game in here on a Sunday and having to cancel it because the field’s torn up from a football game on Saturday,” the mayor continued. “That’s not good for the community, either, scheduling things and having to cancel them.”

The mayor has offered Forness and Franchot parks in the city as alternative game sites for the Diesel.

Bennion called that proposal unacceptable.

“Since day one, it’s always been said that the Oilers play there and the Diesel play there. The city said the same thing,” Bennion said. “It’s multi-use, multi-sport, and our main anchor teams are the Southern Tier Diesel and the Olean Oilers. We’ve all heard this.

“My only argument to this is simple and direct: Why should we have to find an alternate location away from a multi-use facility that you spent taxpayer money building?”

Forness and Franchot are inadequate for the Diesel’s needs, Bennion said.

The city would work with the Diesel to make any accommodations possible, including bleachers, concession stands and converting Franchot to a football configuration, Aiello said.

“We’re not asking them not to use (Bradner), we’re just asking them to hold off until Aug. 13 to have football in there,” Aiello added. “It’s still multi-use. It just won’t be multi-season.”

A Diesel game played June 27 at Bradner in a downpour made the field unplayable for the Oilers for several days afterward. Particularly at issue, Oilers manager Bobby Bell said at the time, was a mud strip in left-center field where the visiting football team’s bench was located.

“The ballgame we had to cancel, the one after football, I (figuratively) got beat up over there for two-and-a-half, three hours by people saying, ‘How can you let this happen?’” Aiello said.

The city “isn’t afforded” a pro-level grounds crew to rehabilitate the field after such a beating, he added.

As a remedy, Bennion said, crews could place cleat mats on each team’s sideline and roll the field after games.

“The biggest damage that everybody’s squawking about are the team boxes up and down the sidelines,” he added.

City officials in recent years have discussed installing artificial turf in Bradner Stadium, but Aiello said that would be costly to taxpayers. Bennion cited health concerns with playing home games on an artificial surface in the summer heat.

Bennion alleged favoritism toward the Oilers.

“We’re being kicked out because (Oilers President) Brian O’Connell and the city mayor had a private meeting, and they want uninhibited access to the stadium, bottom line,” Bennion said. “Since day one, big picture, the project down there has been catered to the Oilers.

“I have nothing against the Olean Oilers,” Bennion said. “I’m glad they’re here. I go to games, and I congratulated them on a championship season. What I have something against is somebody pushing their own agenda because they have a sense of self-entitlement. It’s the principle of the matter.”

Aiello maintained that wasn’t the case.

“That’s not accurate. We’re not playing favorites,” Aiello responded. “Did I have a conversation with Brian O’Connell and what possibilities we could do in the stadium? … Yes, I did have a conversation with Brian, but as for pitting the Olean Oilers against the Diesel, that didn’t take effect.”

O’Connell is president and Bennion a member of the Olean Local Development Corp. Board of Directors, which boosted the Bradner Stadium restoration.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about in terms of any favoritism,” O’Connell said. “I think on the city’s part, they made a decision to protect the investment that the city and the taxpayers have made with respect to the field conditions. … This was not any kind of a backdoor deal.”

By Aug. 13, one or two weeks are likely to remain in the Diesel’s season. Last year’s 10-game NFA regular season ended Aug. 22.

While it wasn’t Olean Common Council’s decision, Aiello said he consulted council members.

“They were all — every one of them — in agreement with this decision,” the mayor said.

Ward 6 Alderman Nate Smith said that’s not entirely accurate. In his view, the length of the exclusion of non-baseball-related activities was misstated.

“I don’t think every council member had any inkling that the Diesel would be excluded for (almost) the entire season,” Smith said. “I feel that when it was brought up to us, it was kind of like, ‘We’re going to limit the Diesel from playing until a particular time, and they’re going to miss a few games.’ Well, it turns out it’s going to be a lot more than a few games.”

Asked if he agreed with the decision, he added, “I can’t say I’m real happy about it being excluded to the Diesel. … It’s a publicly owned stadium. It’s supposed to be for the people, and I can’t say I’m thrilled about one organization being completely barred from it in favor of another. It’s not sitting real well with me right now.”

The city may want to “re-examine” its policy regarding Bradner’s field-use decision-making, Smith added.

Ward 1 Alderman Jerry leFeber said informal conversations about the Bradner decision occurred outside committee meetings, but within legal parameters. He agrees with the call.

“I think the pivotal part of that whole decision was trying to keep the integrity of the playing field, especially for the baseball season,” leFeber said. “One of the things that we on the council have seen is the success of the renovated Bradner Stadium coupled with the success of the Oilers baseball team. That’s brought a lot of pride to the city of Olean.”

While Ward 2 Alderman Kelly Andreano admitted temporarily restricting sports other than baseball at first “sounded like a good idea”; she said the topic was “dropped so nonchalantly that I don’t think any of us really thought much of it.”

“If we have what everyone claims is a multi-use stadium, we need to make sure it’s a multi-use facility. Right now, to be honest, I don’t know where to go with this,” Andreano added, also expressing uncertainty about other events like the annual Fourth of July festivities at Bradner Stadium. “Then it goes back to, are we picking or choosing what we want? That’s a little concerning, picking and choosing events. I definitely want to hear more.”

(Contact reporter Kelsey Boudin at kboudin@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @KelseyMBoudin)