RENO, Nev. — Workers put the last iron beam in place ahead of schedule Friday at a new riverfront baseball park, which owners said will be ready for the Triple A Reno Aces 2009 opener in the Pacific Coast League.

"We're right on schedule, actually ahead of schedule because we scheduled the last beam for Thanksgiving," said Stuart Katzoff, one of the owners.

"We've accomplished a lot in five months. There's five months left and we're looking forward to the first pitch on April 17," he said.

Katzoff showed off the emerging stadium to Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, Sparks Mayor Gino Martini and media in hardhats on Friday as crane operators put the beams in place and crews poured concrete for the grandstand.

"This is a great day for Reno. It's going to revitalize downtown," Cashell said about the $50 million stadium that sits on the southeast edge of the casino district. The Truckee River runs past a grass berm in right field where general admission access will cost $7.

Dugouts are in place, the player locker rooms are almost complete, and 20-foot outfield walls already surround much of the field sunk 18 feet below street level.

The tall walls are needed to help keep some long balls from sailing out of the park, Katzoff explained, because they travel farther at Reno's 4,500-foot elevation. Fences are an inviting at 340 feet down the lines, 400 feet to center field and 420 feet to a nook in the right-center alley.

"It has aspects of a Fenway Park," Katzoff said. "It's tight and you are right on top of the action."

Katzoff is an equal partner in SK Baseball along with his father, Jerry Katzoff, owner of a chain of East Coast Italian restaurants, and Herb Simon, a leading mall developer and owner of the NBA's Indianapolis Pacers.

They bought the Tucson Sidewinders in 2006 and announced last year they intended to move the Triple A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks to Reno. The stadium will seat 6,500, with a total capacity of 9,000 including the grass hill in right field like one at the home of the PCL's Sacramento Rivercats.

The blueprint calls for the historic Freight House built in 1931 for the Southern Pacific Railroad to remain in place as part of a promenade down the left-field foul line — a smaller version of the B&O Warehouse at Baltimore's Camden Yards or the Western Metal Supply Company Building at San Diego's Petco Park.

"Season tickets are going great," Katzoff said, estimating they have processed about 2,000 of the 3,000 pre-sale reservations.

The cheapest fixed seats for single games will go for $9, the most expensive box seats behind home plate will cost $25.

"We think we've priced the product absolutely right," Katzoff said. "Of course, everyone is feeling the stress of the economy. But we are going to try to provide people with an affordable family entertainment outlet in these tough times."