Harwell Meets 400,000 Dollar Requirement

by Dan Cash

Just last week the Detroit Economic Planning and Development Committee voted 2-0 to demolish all of Tiger Stadium. Since that moment, hundreds of thousands of dollars have come in from private donors to save the old Tiger Stadium at MIchigan and Trumbull.

So far, it's a win for the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy. The Detroit Free Press says:

"Tiger Stadium preservationists won a victory today at Detroit City Council when a council committee rescinded its previous support for full demolition of the ballpark and instead called for keeping a dugout-to-dugout portion of the stadium as a Corktown welcome center and display for Ernie Harwell’s baseball artifacts.


Harwell told the Planning and Economic Development Committee that preservationists had met the requirement set by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to raise $400,000 by Aug. 1 to compensate for the loss of salvaged materials that would have been demolished and sold as scrap as well as maintenance of the field and remaining structure.

“I’m gratified by it and very appreciative of the support they’ve shown us,” Harwell said after the 2-0 vote. “It seems maybe we’ve got a chance now to realize fullfilment on it.”

Just last week, the committee voted 2-0 for full demolition. And Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, the committee’s chairwoman, said today she continues to believe the stadium should be razed. But a deal’s a deal, Collins said.

"They raised the money,” she said. “That was a commitment the mayor made to them.”

To tear down the whole stadium after the community raised $400,000 would be a disgrace, Collins said."