ministrative and ticket sales
offices and a restaurant.
The stadium's idled third
deck would accommodate 73
luxury suites similar to those
at modern sports stadiums.
Bensky isn't thrilled by the
suites idea which he says was
added to entice the Tigers,
However, team officials say
more luxury boxes are need-
ed to generate the desired
income.
The renovation would also
allow for removal of some, but
not all, posts in the stadium's
upper deck, reducing the
number of obstructed-view
seats. "Everybody always
looks at the posts as a
negative," says Bensky, a
keen baseball observer. "But
they make it possible to have
the best upper deck seats in
baseball.
"You're closer to the action
here than you are at any
other stadium."
The fan club's proposal,
Bensky believes, would allow
nearly everything one could
of Detroit have been treated
cavalierly by the Tigers to a
degree that you never see
with other teams in other
cities."
He cites the Chicago Cubs
as an example. Chicago,
where Bensky lived for three
years, has a love afair with
the Cubs, win or lose. The
relationship in the main has
been carefully nurtured by
the team, Bensky says, al-
though recently the team ig-
nored the wishes of some fans
and neighbors around
Wrigley Field and eventually
won the right to install lights
and play night games.
Tigers ticket and seat loca-
tion policies generate the
most anger, Bensky says.
"Any other business that
treated its customers this way
wouldn't be in business very
long. It would be run into the
ground. But the Tigers have
something that is loved and
very precious to a large seg-
ment of the community."
Bensky sees this "lack of
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Bensky says Tigers fans are being treated cavalierly.
accomplish by building a new
stadium, at a fraction of the
cost and without tearing
apart the historic Corktown
neighborhood that surrounds
the current stadium.
The plan makes sense, Ben-
sky says. And that's what
worries the attorney and
other fan club members, who
have been openly critical of
the Tigers organization and
the city, and not just about
the future of the ballpark.
The fan clubbers believe the
Tigers show poor business
sense and a lack of concern
for fans in other matters.
"The Tigers are playing
with an asset that is literally
priceless: the relationship
between the team and the
people of the city," Bensky
says. "The people of the city
concern for the customer"
creeping over into the debate
surrounding the ballpark. It
is one reason, he says, the
Tigers have refused to review
the fan club's renovation plan.
"They (the Tigers) try to
paint fan club members as a
bunch of hopeless romantics
and that's not the case," Ben-
sky says. "But apparently we
see value in renovating the
current structure where they
see none."
He says he can't offer a
definitive reason for the push
for a new stadium, but he is
convinced that club owner
Monaghan and Detroit Mayor
Coleman Young "are addicted
to the smell of new concrete."
He doesn't quite understand
why Monaghan would want
to build a "Renaissance
Center" for baseball —
modern, threatening and
walled-off from the city
around it, given the owner's
penchant for classic cars and
the environment-enveloping
designs of architect Frank
Lloyd Wright.
A Tigers public relations
employee referred all ques-
tions regarding the stadium
to Bill Haase, the team's vice
president of operations.
Haase declined to respond to
Bensky's comments. He also
refused to comment on the
Cochrane Plan or discuss the
fan club.
Bensky's desire to keep
baseball at the traditional
level in Detroit stems from
his first Tiger game, when he
was 6. "As a Detroiter and a
Tiger fan by birth, I've always
felt that the team belongs to
the community," he says.
That has held true for Ben-
sky even when he lived in
Chicago, St. Louis, Los
Angeles and in Israel, on a
kibbutz.
He returned to Detroit a
few years ago and recently
took a job with the Michigan
Workers Compensation Ap-
peal Board, whose offices just
happen to be a few blocks
from the stadium.
A Berkley High School
graduate, he earned a
bachelor's degree from
Oakland University and a
master's from the University
of Missouri-St. Louis, receiv-
ing his law degree from the
University of Michigan.
There's even a remotely
Jewish aspect to the preserva-
tion of the stadium, says
Bensky.
"I like to think that I'm in-
formed by a Jewish sensibili-
ty in the way I look at this
situation. We — like the
Tigers — are a people created
by our history. We're also very
strongly tied to a sense of
place," he says.
In addition to the fan club,
Bensky, who is single, is ac-
tive in Labor Zionist Branch
960 and a delegate to the
domestic concerns committee
of the Jewish Community
Council. ❑
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T-Ball Signups
Begin For Kids
The Oak Park Recreation
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sponsoring Kiwanis Club are
inviting all resident 7- and
8-year-old boys and 7-, 8- and
9-year-old girls to sign up by
May 11 for T-Ball play this
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In addition, the department
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545-6400.
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891.6500
540.5550
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
59