rlwhite

This is the heart of the problem. Minor League Baseball allows one team per county. This isn't supposed to serve just the City of Greenville; it's supposed to serve all of Greenville County. The county population is ~400,000, and only ~60,000 live in the city. The city got what it wanted, but the vast majority of the fans have been neglected. The Greenville County population center is on the Eastside, and the commute for the average fan is going up. Most in the county wanted a stadium in the old location or elsewhere east of downtown. Pro baseball has gotten great at passing the public costs over areas other than direct stadium costs. The Drive are paying for the stadium, but the city's paying for supporting infrastructure (something in the $10M range IIRC), which was about what they would've otherwise kicked into stadium costs with no need for new infrastructure.

I wouldn't have chosen Drive. I don't like the sound of Joes, but I'd be willing to endure that to honor Shoeless Joe. People don't see "Greenville Drive" and think about the city leadership and all that hogwash. They see a bland name that doesn't fit a sports team. Perhaps people will think of the local automotive industry, but they don't really want to associate the two. They just want to enjoy baseball. This sort of marketing doesn't belong here. By the way, the Greenville media has misreported that Major League Baseball vetoed the Joes. It's Minor League Baseball that has final say on naming and relocation of minor league teams and ultimately vetoed the Joes. What really bothers me about the rejection of the Joes name though is that the Joes would have been approved in any other city. Would baseball have really rejected the Seattle Joes because of Jackson's ban, or the Pasadena Roses because of Pete Rose's ban? What would you think of renaming the street such that the new stadium's address would be 5 Joe Jackson Avenue or something similar? (5 was Jackson's uniform number when he played for Greenville in the 1930s according to http://www.blackbetsy.com/jjfaq.htm#uniform_number .) This way we can honor him with this team in a way that baseball is powerless to prevent. In my opinion Greenville has struck out with this new team. They fumbled around and lost THE best franchise. No team runs more consistently great talent through the minors year-in and year-out than the Braves. They lost THE best level. AA is the last minor league stop common to almost all future major leaguers. There's a noticeable difference in talent. They put the stadium not only downtown, but also on the West End with no new parking. Let's face it, the majority of the fan base is on the east side of the county and will remain so even after revitalization. Greenville has done a good job of adding parking around the Main Street revitalization, but there's not going to be enough near the West End. The Bombers weren't managed well this past season. The way the scoreboard was allowed to waste away was an embarrassment to Greenville and one of the first things noted in any conversation I heard about the stadium this year. Now there's the failure to run an actual naming contest as promised, and the result is an unpopular name. I'm a native of Greenville and an avid baseball fan who was raised on Greenville Braves baseball and who has come back frequently to see games even though my job has taken me to Charleston, but I can no longer view the Greenville minor league team as my team, and it's doubtful that I'll visit the new stadium more than once. Unlike the Greenville Braves, this team is about what the city leaders want rather than what the fans want.