Owner pursuing more uses for Gold Sox venue

Gold Sox co-owner Tom Lininger had no idea what he'd gotten himself into.

He was a stranger to the sport of mixed martial arts — cagefighting — and he'd just signed on to allow All Seasons RV Stadium to host a one-time fighting event.

"They're fights, any way you look at it," Lininger says, "and there was going to be beer sold."

But the August show, promoted by featherweight superstar Urijah Faber, attracted scores of fans from Sacramento, Chico and towns in-between — including women and children. Only one minor fracas broke out. It was toward the end of the night, and it was broken up without incident.

Since then, Lininger has been thinking big. There's no reason, he says, why the stadium shouldn't be promoted as a regional entertainment site.

He plans to host Faber's MMA event again next year, and has booked the stadium for Yuba College graduation ceremonies in May.

Lininger also is in the process of negotiating with youth baseball leagues about hosting their tournaments next spring and fall.

Such tournaments, he says, will be a boon to other Marysville businesses. The events attract players' families from as far away as Oregon, and keeps them in town for the entire weekend.

The stadium also could host music concerts, says the Sacramento lawyer and businessman.

"We wouldn't attempt to compete with the (Sleep Train) amphitheater," he says, "but we could bring in mid-level music acts."

Changes in February to a contract between Lininger's Yuba Sutter Community Baseball (Gold Sox) and Marysville let the baseball club keep a flat-sum lease at $40,000 a year without the annual 5-percent increases previously required.

In exchange, Lininger promised to promote the stadium for other purposes so that it could attract dollars during the Gold Sox offseason.

Lininger briefed the City Council Tuesday night about his plans.

Faber's August MMA event brought in 2,300 spectators who paid $25-45 for tickets. About 40 percent of attendees were from out of town, Lininger says.

"That was a first step to get us going," as a venue other than just a baseball stadium, he says.

In the meantime, work on a multi-scene baseball mural painted on the stadium's outer fence now is nearly finished.

The project, designed by local artist Louie Letheridge and painted with help from high school students and young adults, was funded through federal stimulus dollars as part of the Economic Recovery Act.

The colorful scenes, Lininger says, "catch people's eye."

And with what amounts to a block-long highway billboard, the artwork is a boon to the venue's visibility.

"People say they didn't even know there was a baseball park there before," Lininger says.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com.