Take me out to the ballgame ... in Naches?

YAKIMA, Wash. -- As the Yakima Bears and their fans prepare for the playoffs, their owners appear to be willing to look beyond city limits for a new home for the team.

Naches town leaders recently invited team officials to look at a 60-acre parcel it's developing as a possible site for a new stadium. The site is on U.S. Highway 12, west of Allan Road and just east of Naches.

Bears General Manager K.L. Wombacher made the drive just to see the potential.

"Nothing is going on there at this point," he said Thursday, the same day the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce sponsored a playoff rally in downtown Yakima. "But it was interesting enough for me to drive out there and look at it," he said.

Naches Town Administrator Jeff Ranger, who invited Wombacher out, warns folks not to get too giddy at this point.

"I haven't heard anything from K.L., so I figured nothing is going on," he said Thursday. "It's just a site for them to look at right now."

But whether the Bears decide to settle in at the site of the former Boise Cascade sawmill or in Naches, about $25 million will still need to be raised to build a ballpark and a long-term revenue plan devised to keep operations going.

Yakima Mayor Micah Cawley said he would like to see the team stay in the city, but if "anyone else has 23 to 25 million bucks to invest in a stadium, then more power to them."

"It's hard enough to find $25 million to build a stadium," he said. "Then finding sustainable revenue, that's going to be the trick."

The team's lease at State Fair Park expires in 2015, but in February, Wombacher said: "We will not be able to renew our lease without a major renovation or a new ballpark."

Team officials say the team has lost money for the past nine years and that they have the smallest of the Northwest League's eight venues.

Wombacher said it's not clear if fans would be willing to drive to Naches.

Although Ranger said there is no funding plan in the works at this time in Naches for the project, he believes fans would make the drive.

"You're talking 12 to 15 minutes max," he said. "And your talking only one stoplight between here and Yakima."

Although the old mill site would be ideal, most fans won't mind so long as the team remains in the area, said Mike Issacs, who has attended home games religiously the past three seasons.

"I would make the drive all summer long to go out and see them in Naches," he said.

His girlfriend, also a fan, agrees.

"Absolutely," she said. "They have dollar tickets on Wednesday which makes up for the driving. The tickets are so reasonable, I don't think it's unreasonable to drive."

During a study session on Wednesday, the Yakima City Council will discuss whether to move forward with a revenue study on the team.

Meanwhile, crews in Naches have already extended water and sewer to the site. That infrastructure is already a work in progress and would be completed with or without a baseball stadium.

Next, turn lanes and lighting will be installed where Allan Road intersects with Highway 12.

Ranger said the plan is to bring retail and light industrial businesses to the site, and a ballpark could easily be brought into the fold.

"Certainly there is room to do it," he said. "If we do get to do something like that, it sure would make all the property around it worth more."

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.