Wahoos are the Story of the Year!

Mike Jeffcoat was born in Pensacola, raised in Pensacola and, as the University of West Florida's baseball coach, is entrenched in Pensacola's sports scene.

He has seen a variety of professional sports teams and events arrive and exit.

The Pensacola Tornados basketball team was here. The Ice Pilots professional hockey team preceded the Ice Flyers at the Pensacola Civic Center. The Pensacola Open was part of the city's lengthy history with the PGA Tour. The Pensacola Pelicans were an Independent league baseball team for eight years.

But, like many other sports-minded people in this community, Jeffcoat is convinced the soon-to-debut Pensacola Blue Wahoos will create an impact unlike any prior sports entity.

"It's going to change the whole dynamic of Pensacola," Jeffcoat said. "It's already changing the dynamics of downtown Pensacola."

Quint and Rishy Studer's purchase of the Southern League baseball franchise is the overwhelming choice in a News Journal readers' poll as the No. 1 story of 2011.

The Wahoos, the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, will open on April 5 in the new Community Maritime Park overlooking Pensacola Bay.

When the first pitch is thrown, it will be a major step on an odyssey that began when Studer and other business leaders got together after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 to decide how to rebuild a devastated city.

The Maritime Park concept, including a multiuse stadium geared to baseball, was a project born from those meetings. Two years later, the park was approved by city voters.

Since then, there have been legal challenges, public petitions against the park, the firing of the original developer, numerous construction changes, the scrapping of a maritime museum and changes on governing boards.

Yet as 2011 closed, the light towers and the stadium grandstand rose above a once-blighted area that has become a highly visible sign of Pensacola's untapped potential.

"I feel like I have gone through two presidential elections," Studer said. "And now I know why presidents age so quickly."

Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward said the community "owes a major debt of gratitude to the Studers."

"They've stayed engaged and pushed to make this project a successful, quality project we can all be proud of," he said.

Hayward said the park is a milestone that brings unprecedented benefits.

"From a public sector standpoint, this is obviously the biggest development project the city has ever undertaken," he said. "From a private sector, jobs, and economic and community development standpoint, I think the impact is even bigger."

The Studers have invested more than $15 million into bringing the Double-A franchise - the second-highest level before the Major Leagues - into Pensacola.

Those costs include purchasing the Carolina Mudcats franchise from an ownership group near Raleigh, N.C., the subsequent transfer fees, the fees paid to the Southern League, and the alteration of the Mobile BayBears' exclusivity agreement with Minor League Baseball to prevent another Southern League team from locating within the same Gulf Coast region.

Elite company

The arrival of the Blue Wahoos puts Pensacola among elite company.

There are only 120 cities in the U.S. that have a full-season, minor-league baseball franchise connected to one of the 30 Major League Baseball franchises in North America. And there are only 30 cities that have Double-A teams, a level where players identified as being capable of playing in the Major Leagues are sent to further hone skills.

"There are a lot of cities across America that would love to have what we have now," said Blue Wahoos team president Bruce Baldwin, who spent more than 25 years with the Atlanta Braves organization.

Jeffcoat, whose UWF baseball team created its own story in 2011 by winning the NCAA Division II national championship, said local fans will see Blue Wahoos players jump straight into the Major Leagues.

"You will see teams' No. 1 draft picks playing in this town. I can't imagine anything better," he said. "For the people in Pensacola who know baseball, they already know how huge this is for our city. But for the naysayers, when they see the quality of baseball and the quality of the product being showcased, they will understand."

Transformation

One of the Blue Wahoos' nearest rivals will be the Montgomery Biscuits, who will be the opponents for the season-opening series.

The Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, play in the 7,000-seat Riverwalk Stadium that opened on April 16, 2004, along the banks of the Alabama River near the Alabama state capital complex.

Dawn Hathcock, vice president of the Montgomery Convention and Visitor Development Bureau, said the Biscuits put a new face on downtown Montgomery.

"Montgomery had reached the point where at 5 o'clock, the sidewalks rolled up, the state workers left and downtown shut down," she said.

"Now, that has all changed. I would say the baseball stadium and the Biscuits were the catalyst for the renaissance of our downtown as an entertainment destination. It led to new restaurants, a convention center and a hotel. And we continue to expand that entertainment district."

Hayward is confident the same kind of effect will occur in Pensacola, which has already seen Palafox Place become more vibrant and popular seasonal events like Gallery Nights and the New Year's Eve Pelican Drop lure thousands of people downtown. The stadium will be only a few blocks from Palafox, bringing thousands of people into one venue.

"I think there's no question this is a transformational event," Hayward said. "From the Blue Wahoo games to other events at the stadium or the park, we're going to be drawing thousands of people to our downtown and waterfront on an almost daily basis. That's a lot of people shopping, eating, or going to the museums, galleries, enjoying our Historic District, and our arts and cultural offerings."

Interest in the Wahoos blossomed months before the first game.

Season-ticket sales are nearing 2,300 with many of the purchases guaranteed for multiple seasons, Baldwin said. A kiosk at Cordova Mall selling T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts with the Blue Wahoos logo generated more than $25,000 in pre-Christmas sales, Studer said.

The team also plans a permanent merchandise store, complete with a variety of Wahoo apparel and souvenirs, located at the ballpark and open year-round.

Multipurpose venue

Studer's original intention was not to lure a Double-A team, which requires meeting certain standards for seating and team facilities.

The new stadium is built to those standards, with 4,200 chairback seats along with seating along berms and party decks for hundreds of more spectators.

But baseball won't be the only event that takes place in the field constructed so it can convert to a football or soccer field or site for non-sports events.

Studer said he wants to have between 150 and 200 events a year at the stadium, outside of the 72 home games the Blue Wahoos will play from April through August.

The stadium could lead to Pensacola landing a collegiate or high school baseball tournament or could be a start-up venue if the University of West Florida's plans for a football team come to fruition, Studer said.

Behind the stadium's center field wall, an amphitheater will be completed later this year for outdoor concerts.

"We are hiring someone just to work on non-baseball events," Studer said. "We want people down there.

"I think what you will see is a place where events are either held or finished there. Whether it's something like the Pensacola Marathon, or a Christmas display at the ballpark, or an event actually taking place inside the stadium."

The big screen

The stadium also will feature a massive, high-definition video screen, similar to those at Major League Baseball stadiums.

The screen, rising 58 feet from the ground behind the right-center field wall, will show replays and fans in the stands as well as provide live television from networks such as ESPN.

Studer said the video board will allow the team to have outdoor movie nights and football viewing parties.

"I can foresee having people come with blankets and some hot chocolate and sit in the outfield to watch a movie," he said.

The Blue Wahoos already have led to awareness about Pensacola.

"I think this puts a stamp on Pensacola as a great sports town," said Richard LaBounty, the long-time Catholic High baseball coach and athletic director. "It will do nothing but enhance all of the sports in our town."

Whether it's Hayward visiting other areas to lure business, or marketing agencies trying to lure events or tourism, the connection with the Cincinnati Reds, the Southern League and Double-A baseball, has opened new doors of opportunity.

"We used to travel to Southern League cities like Chattanooga, or Birmingham, or Knoxville that had Double-A baseball," said Ray Palmer, executive director of the Pensacola Sports Association. "Now, to have a team of our own, and to be able to say that we are part of the Southern League, part of Double-A baseball, it's huge for us."

Palmer believes the team will become the biggest sports entity in Pensacola's history.

"To have something as significant as Double-A baseball, with all its history, coming to Pensacola, this is the real deal," he said. "It is so different from anything else we've had here. This is just over-the-top cool."