Bakersfield "very unlikely" to get a new stadium

[dougdirt]

For the last year, Bakersfield was supposed to be getting a new stadium. They had new owners take over and planned out a new baseball complex. They went about trying to fund it privately and the original date of completion was before the 2014 season. However during this year they moved it back to before the 2015 season. 15 minutes ago they sent out a press release that said the following:

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (October 7, 2013)—The owners (Gene Voiland and Chad Hathaway) of the Bakersfield Blaze released the following statement today:

Over the past two years we have worked tirelessly with many people to build a privately-financed stadium that the people of Bakersfield could be proud of and would support. We made significant efforts to raise money from inside Kern County and nationally. Although we obtained significant commitments for the project, we fell substantially short of the goal required to build a stadium that would be successful. We are very thankful to those dedicated partners (contractors, government officials, land owners and investors) who were willing to step up and make an investment in Baseball and the Bakersfield community. Bakersfield should be one of the best Minor League Baseball markets in the country, and the stadium would have been transformational for the city and region. Disappointingly, a new stadium appears to be very unlikely.