Aces Open Tenth Season at Greater Nevada Field - KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe Sparks News, Weather, Video

The Reno Aces opened their tenth season at Greater Nevada Field on Thursday.  A decade ago, the plan was to further develop the area around the field but when the economy collapsed, a lot of those plans were put on hold.

"The world changed hard the first three or four years after the stadium was built," said Eric Edelstein, President of the Reno Aces and Reno 1868 FC.  "We hadn't been through a recession like that before so absolutely it put things behind."
 
Now things are starting to pick back up.  The ball club has big plans for an empty lot on the river across from the stadium.
 
"We have a vision that we're less than two years away from an apartment complex with a multi-use development," Edelstein said.  "It's a place where people will live with views of the river right across from the ballpark."
 
The goal is to have people living there by opening day 2020.
 
"We're working in the early stages with local developers," Edelstein said.  "We will have announcements in the coming months but it's happening, it's for real this time, and we're excited to continue to help drive downtown forward. There's a lot of great things happening down here and we want to be part of that continued growth."
 
The Freight House District has a new addition with a familiar name.  Red's Broken Bat BBQ opened two months ago.
 
"We have people come in and they say, 'Red's from Carson City, right?' And I'm like, that's right, they love it!," said Red's General Manager Mario Zamora.  
 
The hope is to continue to grow an already loyal following in an area that's growing as well.
 
"They're working on so many projects and we can only contribute to that," Zamora said.  "I hope we're very successful.  We're here by the stadium, downtown, we are in an area that's growing so fast and we just want to be a part of it."

Between baseball games, soccer games, Nitro Circus shows and concerts, the goal is to have at least 100 ticketed events at Greater Nevada Field this year.