Braves vs. Rangers for Carolina rights; loser goes West

[rico43]

The Carolina Mudcats are pitting the Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers against one another for the rights to stay in the Carolina League.

They are the final two major league franchises yet to hook up with an Advanced Class A farm club, and the Mudcats are the only franchise left on this side of the Rockies. The loser in this battle will be forced to hook up with High Desert in the California League because the Mariners unexpectedly left High Desert to return to Bakersfield, which is the s***hole of minor league baseball these days, but about to be abandoned for a new stadium in Salinas.

Carolina’s decision won’t be coming until early next week. The Braves are in town today to tour Five County Stadium and the Rangers will be coming to Zebulon on Monday to do the same. The Mudcats should make up their mind soon after. Atlanta, which has been a part of the Carolina League since 1980, is likely the favorite to stick in Carolina. The Braves have a built-in fan base in North Carolina and previously called nearby Durham home when they were a Bulls affiliate from 1980-97.

 

[chipchildress]

thanks to the idiots in wilmington for voting down a river front stadium that would have been atlanta's permanent home and would have been absolutely awesome for the city of wilmington. but no, they don't want the smallest bit of public money to help, even though we've seen over and over and over and over again how downtown baseball stadiums have been huge economic boons all over the country.

 

[rico43]

thanks to the idiots in wilmington for voting down a river front stadium that would have been atlanta's permanent home and would have been absolutely awesome for the city of wilmington. but no, they don't want the smallest bit of public money to help, even though we've seen over and over and over and over again how downtown baseball stadiums have been huge economic boons all over the country.

When hurricanes aren't passing through, Wilmington is a wonderful city. My choice of a place to retire to. Too bad it is populated and governed by idiots.

 

[keithlaw]

Public funding for sports stadium is a terrible investment.

 

[chipchildress]

Public funding for sports stadium is a terrible investment.

no it isn't. it has been shown over and over and over again all over the country that minor league baseball stadiums are huge spurs for investment.
we're not talking about a billion dollar football stadium in atlanta that will only be used 20 times a year. we're talking about bringing people downtown at a much much lower cost to the public for a range of events that cover a huge part of the calendar. there's so much room for surrounding businesses to grow and they do in all of these similar instances. not to mention the tourism draw and money you get as well. in wilmington that would especially be monstrous with all of beaches nearby. the amount of tourism money that would have been brought in would have blown your mind and the meager 2.5 cent property tax increase would have been made back in an eyelash. this is the dumbest thing a group of voters could have ever done unless stifling progress was their goal. It's the same extremely short sighted arguments we see play out repeatedly. They say keep me from paying taxes on that stuff so you can cut your money elsewhere, completely ignoring the fact that the benefits would be tremendous. This isn't about economic restraint, it's about pressing forward an ideology. Wilmington will continue to struggle and fall farther and farther back and now with the general assembly essentially killing the movie industry, it's going to hurt that much more.

i'm sorry but your one sentence rebuttal is no more than a political talking point spouted at you by talking propagandists. in this case it would have been incredibly beneficial for the city and wilmington would reap rewards for generations to come.you don't have to look for to see where stadiums have paid for themselves a zillion times over in no time to see it's worth it. durham is one of the greatest examples ever. the single investment of putting a new ball park in a once downtrodden area of the city has spurred what has become one of the greatest revitalization efforts in american history.