PCL president Branch Rickey, left, and International League president Randy Mobley present Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry with a jersey. Albuquerque was awared the 2011 Triple-A championship game, part of the fallout from having baseball return to the city.

But that pretty much ends the similitudes between Isotopes Park and its predecessor, the Albuquerque Sports Stadium.

This renovation was a re-creation — a majestic work of baseball art.

“Let’s make one thing clear; that wasn’t a renovation,” says former Mayor Jim Baca, with a chuckle. “All they left from the old stadium was a 10-foot slab of concrete. It’s silly to call it a renovation. It’s a brand-new stadium.”

When the Dukes left Albuquerque for Portland after the 2000 season, baseball went dark in the Duke for two years. Baca led the charge to bring Triple-A baseball and a new stadium to town.

It was quite a task. It took some intense political clashes, endless effort by local fans, a little blind luck in finding new owners and a special election by Albuquerque’s voters. The voters chose to renovate the Sports Stadium instead of building a new one Downtown, and the project was completed in about 17 months — and in time for the 2003 season.

“Ed Adams, the project manager for the city, was the glue who kept this whole thing together,” says Isotopes general manager John Traub, who has been a part of franchise from the outset. “From the architect, to the team, to the subcontractors — he and his team are the ones who really get credit for building the stadium on time and within budget.

“It was a condensed time period in which it had to be done. He and his team had the city’s best interest at heart.”

Says Baca, “Everything happened in such a short time, it was amazing.”

Come April 5, 2003, it was ready.

While the Albuquerque Isotopes began their debut season on the road, New Mexico baseball fans made their debut at Isotopes Park for an open house extravaganza.

“When we first started here, we knew it was going to be something special — just from the construction and hearing the buzz around town,” Traub says. ” And we really got excited when we put our mini-plan tickets and flex-plan tickets on sale in February in our temporary building, and there was a line wrapped around the building, down the street and through the parking lot. The response was phenomenal.

“But then came the open house and 10,000 people showed up. It was unbelievable. The merchandise we sold, the interest in the new mascot — that’s when we really had high expectations.”

That mascot, Orbit, became one of the many symbols of a new era and the Isotopes brand.

Of course, even the nickname didn’t come without controversy.

When new owners snatched up the Calgary Cannons in 2002 and moved them to Albuquerque, many fans wanted to see the name return to Dukes. That was the name of the city’s first minor league baseball team in 1915, and then again from 1946-2000 for all but seven years, when it took the parent L.A. Dodgers’ moniker.

This time, the parent club was the Florida Marlins. And this time, the name Dukes was discarded.

“When we announced name of team, it went over huge,” says Isotope president Ken Young. “A few people wanted to keep the Dukes name, but we wanted a newness to everything. That’s why came up with the new name.”

Isotopes originated on an episode of the Simpsons television show, in which Homer stages a hunger strike when he learns the mayor of Albuquerque wanted to steal the Springfield Isotopes baseball team.

Albuquerque’s former mayor said the name symbolized change.

“It absolutely did,” Baca says. “There was a whole new show in town. It’s not the Albuquerque Duke guy running around. Some people said, ‘We’ve got to have the Dukes, we’ve got to have the Dukes.’ I thought, ‘maybe you have to have the Dukes, but the fact is, the new owners should be able to name the team.’ ”

Spectacular start

Success came early and often to the new franchise and its exquisite new venue.

The park has 11,124 seats, but a capacity of approximately 16,000 counting standing room and the grass berm . There are nearly 100 food stands with culinary fare that matches just about everyone’s palate.

The Fun Zone recreation area has a playground, rides and inflatable bounce houses for kids, and the venue’s 30 suites have been sold out since day one.

On the field, the product often has been sparkling, as well. The Isotopes won a division title that first season and attendance was an outstanding 576,867.

“I think the Dukes’ biggest attendance was 370,000 to 380,000,” Traub says. “We surpassed that in late June or early July. Even with high expectations, we exceeded all of them.”

A decade later, little has changed. Albuquerque won its third division title in 2012 and had 568,417 show up for the season.

Through the first 10 seasons, the franchise averaged nearly 580,000 a year and will celebrate fan number 6-million sometime this summer.

It has ranked in the top four for PCL attendance every year, and in the top 10 nationally for all minor league teams.

The season opener is on Thursday, when the Isotopes play host to the Iowa Cubs in front of an expected crowd of more than 8,000.

“It has beat our projections,” Young says of the past decade. “The enthusiasm of the people of New Mexico hasn’t waned in 10 years. I knew they were good fans but this type of enthusiasm is tough to find in a lot of places.”

Those fans have seen baseball stars like Manny Ramirez and Matt Kemp play for the Isotopes and Mark Prior pitch against them. They have seen Kevin Costner in the stands, and more than 14,000 showed up when the parent Florida Marlins — the defending World Series champs — played an exhibition game in freezing weather with snow flurries on April 4, 2004.

And when it comes to promotions, especially the ever-popular fireworks nights, they pile into the park in droves. The record was 16,059 on July 4, 2011, and there have been eight crowds of more than 15,000.

But the park was also built with the players in mind, and has indoor batting cages, weight rooms, large locker rooms and a video room.

All of that helped lure the Los Angeles Dodgers back to the Duke City, this time as the Isotopes’ parent club in 2009.

“I know those were all things Pat tried to get done,” Traub says of the late Pat McKernan, the highly respected general manager of the Dukes from 1979 until they were sold in 2000.

McKernan tried to get city officials to build a new park in the late 1990s.

“I grew up in Los Angeles, and was a Dodgers fan, and the Albuquerque Dukes were as iconic a franchise as there was. I know what Pat McKernan meant to this community. I know what his legacy was to this community, and that’s why we’ve been so respectful, and why we have McKernan Hall for the Hall of Fame.”

“…I really believe our success is due in large part to the success Pat had with the Dukes, and how he established minor league baseball as such an important part of this town.”

Bonding the hole

The demise of the Albuquerque Sports Stadium led to Dukes’ owner Bob Lozinak of Maryland selling the team in 2000.

It also led to the demise of baseball in the city until 2003.

“When the Dukes left, it was big hole in the heart of the city,” says current Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, then a businessman in the community. “The official start of spring was the start of baseball. And that was gone for two years.

“It was fantastic the Isotopes came, and it’s fantastic the quality of the organization we’ve got. And it’s been just a tremendous boost for the city.”

A city that voted to give the franchise a $10 million bond in 2001.

It’s all been paid back, and then some.

“They paid $17.35 million to this point, and we will get another check for the 10th year in a row,” says Berry, who along with legendary former L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda are scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitches on Thursday.

” … Like a lot of things, sometimes when something bad happens, something really good can come out of it. The Isotopes have been a really the good thing.”

Berry says the Isotopes cut a check to the city each year for between $1.5 and $2 million. Because the bond has been paid in full, the money goes to a capital improvement fund for renovations to the city-owned stadium each year — preventing it from suffering the same fate as the old Sports Stadium.

“Back then, Pat McKernan had to go to the city council and ask for money for improvements,” Baca says.

A joint effort

While getting Triple-A baseball back and a new stadium built took a great deal of political battles and amazing efforts by so many, there is little arguing about the final product.

Those who were on opposite sides at one time pretty much seem to be on the same page more than a decade later.

“People ask, ‘Would it have been more successful if it would have been Downtown?’ I don’t know. I can’t answer that,” says Brad Winter, who’s been on city council for 14 years. “I love the ballpark. It’s absolutely been successful, and they’ve done a really good job. The only issue I have is they make it difficult for anybody else to use it. But they’re good business people. It’s a great product.

“Even the name Isotopes turned out well,” Winter says. “It’s a jewel for Albuquerque, so we did something right back then. With anything involving politics, it’s not easy to get there, but it really did turn our great.”

Pacific Coast League president Branch Rickey, who helped move the Dukes out of the Sports Stadium and helped bringing the Isotopes and the new park into town, says the change has been great for the league.

“You only have to wander over to that stadium for 15 minutes, and know the rest of the story,” Rickey says. “The Pacific Coast League has had a tremendous amount of activity and of transitions … Maybe I can find something of concern with one of the other 15 franchises, but I can’t find any concern with the Albuquerque franchise. It’s terrific; the stadium, the fans and the atmosphere.”

For Lawrence Rael, the city’s former chief administrative officer who spearheaded Baca’s quest for baseball, 2001 was a year filled with frustration and dead-ends.

But it was also the most gratifying of his 12 years in city government.

“Despite the politics of the council, everyone came together and it worked,” he says. “I had a hand in a lot of major projects in New Mexico, like the Rail Runner, but this was the most satisfying because we actually made something happen, and I’m not sure if the spirit of collaboration is still there in politics today.

“It was a case study of how private and public partnership works. We have a great product in the stadium. The Isotopes provide a great product. You couldn’t ask for it to have come out better.”
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal