By Brenna R. Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FLORENCE - Fans hoping to see minor league baseball in Florence will have to wait a little longer.

The Florence Freedom will spend the first month of its 2004 season on the road because the team's new 4,500-seat stadium may not be ready by the Frontier League's opening day in late May.

"I didn't want to go in there with it possibly not 100-percent complete," said Connie Hildebrant, the team's general manager, "so I pushed it back."

The team will play in Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio before returning home to Florence June 18.

"It's going to make the team gel very quickly," Hildebrant said. "They will either love each other or hate each other."

League Commissioner Bill Lee said Florence's request to play the first month on the road "wasn't easy to schedule, but we got it done."

The Freedom will open the 2004 season May 21 in Evansville, Ind., and play the next 26 games on the road before playing in the new Tom Gill Field.

"We just want to give them a chance to get it up and running and get it all done," Lee said from the league's Troy, Ill., office.

Because the stadium wasn't ready for last season, the team played its first season in Hamilton, Ohio, at 2,000-seat Foundation Field.

Last year the team had trouble getting fans to make the hour drive to Hamilton. The average attendance was 466 and the total attendance for the season was 18,623.

"I think they've sold more season tickets than they had in attendance last year," Lee said.

The team had sold about 1,500 season tickets for the 2004 season, Hildebrant said. Though the stadium has 4,500 seats, it also will have a lawn and picnic area, bringing capacity to 7,000 people.

Season tickets for the 48 home games are $405 for VIP level, $360 for box, $315 for Club, and $270 for field. There are also lawn and picnic area tickets available.

Construction on the stadium began in the fall of last year after the city of Florence bought the 30-acre site for $5 million. Northern Kentucky Professional Baseball is leasing the site from the city and is building the $7 million stadium.

Work on the stadium is continuing even in the winter weather.

A visible structure should begin to take shape at the site near U.S. 42 and Interstate 75 in three weeks, Hildebrant said.

E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com