Baseball Coming to Springdale

The numbers are still unofficial, the election numbers won`t become official until they are certified Friday morning. Voting officials say the turnout ended up twice as big as they expected, especially for a special election. In all close to five-thousand people voted Tuesday. In order for the stadium to become a reality, residents had to vote `yes` on all three questions on the ballot. The first two questions centered around the city`s roads program and the third was the baseball stadium bond. All three passed. On question one, for refunding bonds and taxes, 3,104 people voted for it, while 1,661 voted against. Question two, for street improvement bonds and taxes, 3,313 people voted for it, and 1,463 voted against it. Question three, for the baseball stadium bond and taxes, 2,410 people approved it, while 2,393 voted against it. Just 17 votes on question number three passed the stadium bond. Perry Webb, President and CEO of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, said he`s not sure why the vote was so close. "It`s too early to tell why, I would say it`s a lot of money, and we knew it was. We knew it was a challenge but we thought this was the best plan for the long term benefit of our citizens," Webb said. There have been several reports that Springdale is trying to lure the Wichita Wranglers to the area...Webb said the city will likely announce the new baseball team within the next couple of days. "The city council and the city of Springdale will start working directly with a team to finalize a lease arrangement and only after that`s done will there be any construction commenced or money spent."