Pensacola Maritime Park faces $250k deficit

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - The Community Maritime Park has now been host to an entire season of Blue Wahoos' baseball and numerous other events, but a recent report from the city of Pensacola shows the park faces a more than $250,000 deficit.

The volunteer board members of the Community Maritime Park Association are still optimistic.

“We still have those eight parcels of land on the property that we could sell from $50 to $75 thousand a piece. If we sell those, you'll see the deficit goes away very quickly,” said Collier Merrill.

Merrill, the chairman of the board, said the park still has numerous ways to make up the funds, including naming the stadium, advertising and selling empty lots on the property.

Merrill said an important way to look at the cutting the deficit isn’t just focusing on the baseball stadium, but the entire park.

“There have been a number of concerts at the amphitheater, and that’s a money maker for us. Anybody can rent that. People can rent the park and the stadium when it’s a non-baseball event. The Blue Wahoos aren’t the only tenants,” Merrill said.

Merrill says despite the fact that the Blue Wahoos had record sellouts, he feels the best is yet to come.

“We’re going to put a marina in there and there’s talk about putting in a YMCA. It will truly be a park for the people and that’s what it was intended for,” said Merrill.