Observer Story: Pitching a new ballpark.

I think anyone can see the potential down the road ...

... having a AAA Minor League baseball inside the city is a no-brainer. Great, inexpensive family entertainment is pretty durn hard to find and a new AAA minor league stadium placed in the heart of downtown would be a great draw.

I'd get season tickets for that.

 

we're not talking about just Charlotte or just Ft Mill, we're talking about the Carolinas and how may people are close enough by and have enough $ and have enough deep pocket corporations who can shell out a box for the season, who by the way have already been the target for Panthers, Bobcats, Hurricanes. 80 more games at premium pricing x 20,000 seats... thats a big nut to swallow.

 

The "Tough Nut" would probably end up being something the Bobcats had to swallow, not an MLB team if it came to that.

But, AAA game tickets are a bit less costly ... I won't drive all the way to Fort Mill (partially just because Shinn built it), but having a Minor League stadium uptown would be good for the uptown businesses year around.

It would be a good investment. I've been to the down-town ballpark in Dayton, Ohio. It's a single-A team (Dayton Dragons), but they get a lot of MLB players coming down from Cincinatti since they are the closest affiliate. The ballpark is normally sold-out all summer long (about 7-8,000) ... great family show at a very reasonable price. The town has really adopted the team too. It's not like the Knights, who no one cares about. It would also help a lot if the Knights would affiliate with a team who is a bit closer to Charlotte (Instead of the White Sox, hook up with Washington, Atlanta will never be available).

 

very few people knew about the plan the merchandise mart people were wanting to change their whole complex into a sports facility. This included AAA baseball and tournaments all year. This really would help the citys' economy with all the people that do travel sports. Too bad our city council and county commissioners did not takle this plan seriously. It was an awesome plan. We could already have baseball real close to downtown.

 

University Park might as well go ahead and purchase Cricket Arena for their Family Life Center.