JOHNSTOWN - Visitors to an aging and historic ballpark could see much more than baseball when an $8 million renovation is finished next year.

Officials in Johnstown, which lost its Frontier League baseball team in 2002, are working on a promotion plan for Point Stadium hoping to lure events ranging from plays to concerts to motorcycle rallies to religious revivals.

"You don't want to wait until it's open to market it. You'll have a year of nothing," said Don Zucco, mayor of the former steel town about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Work on the ballpark won't begin until the All-American Amateur Baseball Association Tournament wraps up in August. After that crews will be busy transforming the 79-year-old ballpark into a modern entertainment complex, tearing down rusted grandstands, expanding left field and adding artificial turf.

Officials say changing the surface to artificial turf would allow the ballpark to be used for more than sports. But officials do also plan to pitch the stadium for year-round use by high school football, baseball and soccer teams, minor league baseball teams and possibly the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates.

Park historians say the stadium was the second in the country to install lights for night games shortly after it was built in 1926, when Johnstown was a booming steel town. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played there in an exhibition game, as did Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson on Negro League barnstorming tours in 1945.