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Baseball in Charlotte, which will happen?

monsoon

By monsoon
in Charlotte

BaseBall in Charlotte, which will happen?  

172 members have voted

  1. 1. BaseBall in Charlotte, which will happen?

    • Major League Baseball in 2nd Ward
      41
    • Minor League Baseball in 3rd Ward
      98
    • Neither
      33

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swh1972 Hamlet

swh1972

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Yea 64 million dollars for a stadium that is used a dozen times a year. Smart investment there.... Not to mention the tremendous amount of money the city spends in police, emt, and fire crews to handle the traffic, litter, crime, DUI's etc that go along with those dozen or so football games.
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JC1 Crossroads

JC1

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Ok I think everyone needs to stop the arguing on both this thread and the Bobcats arena thread. There are basically two factions that have very different opinions. There is the pro sports crowd that appreciates how a team can unify a city, and there is the anti-sports crowd that is against everything that has to do with sports. I will make it very clear where I stand. I am incredibly pro-sport. I love the game, but I enjoy just as much what sports can do for a city. When the Panthers are in the championship game and you see every other car on the road driving around with a flag, that shows that it means something to the people of this region. Sports teams create a sense of civic pride that can unify a city like nothing else. You cannot put a monetary value on this aspect of having sports. If anybody watched the Falcons-Saints Monday night football game in New Orleans, it was essentially a coming out party for the city once again. That game meant so much for the citizens of New Orleans, and there is no way that you could convince me otherwise. Just because I am pro-sport does not mean I am anti-art. I support the arts, but an entire city cant be made up of eclectic artsy districts. Yes, that would be very valuable to downtown, but so are sports. Why doesn't New York city just knock down Madison Square Garden and create another SoHo or East Village? Because a central gathering place is of vital importance to a city. To take a line from gladiator, "The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it is the sand of the Coliseum." Even if you dont like sports, you dont have to bash them every chance you get. It seems as if most of the pro-sports people are not anti-art, but a very high percentage of the pro-art people are incredibly anti-sport. I am not a huge fan of the arts, but I am an incredibly big supporter of the new museums planned becuase I realize it will add another dimension to this city. And to those of you that suggested the Panthers should have built the stadium out by the SC border: are you serious? That's what every city did in the mid-80's and are now trying to build stadiums downtown. For those of you who dont like sports, do this: on 8:15 this sunday night turn to NBC. You along with millions and millions of others around the nation will see a beautiful view of the skyline of downtown Charlotte as it leads up to BofA Stadium for the game. If that view and the realization that millions of others around the country are saying, wow, Charlotte looks like a really nice city, doesnt make you feel proud of your city, I dont know what will.

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reverbandwhiskey Hamlet

reverbandwhiskey

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Not everyone who is against using public funds to build stadiums is anti-sports. I love baseball and football, but have no interest in seeing public funds used to build their facilities. Owning a sports team is basically a license to print money. I think publuic funds should be spent on raods, parks, and attracting QUALITY jobs for the area.

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JC1 Crossroads

JC1

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This is a pointless argument. You cant quanitfiably measure the impact of sports in a monetary sense.

How much is it worth having the name Charlotte posted in every newspaper every day in the standings section?

How much is it worth having your city on prime time television when millions of people are watching?

How much is it worth when your city is in the Super Bowl and the entire world is watching?

I would say 64 million dollars is a steal.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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How much is it worth having the name Charlotte posted in every newspaper every day in the standings section?

How much is it worth having your city on prime time television when millions of people are watching?

How much is it worth when your city is in the Super Bowl and the entire world is watching?

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browngeo Whistle-Stop

browngeo

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Maybe worth the fish wrap paper it is printed on, nothing more. Charlotte has been growing by leaps and bounds for the last 35 years and the sports teams had nothing to do with it. I have never met one person who said, "oh I moved to Charlotte because it has a NBA team". The Hornets left Charlotte, and despite that, people did not pack their bags and move from the city.
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MZT Burg

MZT

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I don't give Realtor spin much weight in this debate. What they're doing, is making assumptions that uptown buyers are interested in the sports teams... when they may just be interested in walking to work and having a nice view. (I'm sure the Realtors in Cornelius spend a lot of time talking about the lake, to people who mainly want to live in a low crime town.) It's just a conversation entry, and a way to pitch the uniqueness of an area.

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schmopperX Whistle-Stop

schmopperX

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Maybe worth the fish wrap paper it is printed on, nothing more. Charlotte has been growing by leaps and bounds for the last 35 years and the sports teams had nothing to do with it. I have never met one person who said, "oh I moved to Charlotte because it has a NBA team". The Hornets left Charlotte, and despite that, people did not pack their bags and move from the city.
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JC1 Crossroads

JC1

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exactly schmopperX. Metro, I never said anything about someone moving here because we have an NBA team. My point is that it gets the name of the city out there like nothing else can. Having "Charlotte" scrolled across the bottom of CNN or in the New York Times gives us just that much more added exposure compared to other up and coming cities along the lines of Oklahoma City or Omaha.

Its interesting that you bring up the success of Charlotte's Banks. Obviously it is very clear that both BofA and Wachovia have been incredibly succesfully run companies. Why then would these two astute corporations be such big promoters of professional sports in our city? Ill tell you why....because they realize that the benefits (including intangibles that cannot be quantified) far outweigh the costs.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Nobody here as said the isn't vast amount of money to be made in professional sports. I have said it before myself even in this thread. However, just because BofA and Wachovia are making money on these sports that are being subsidized by tax money, doesn't mean it is good for the average citizen of this city who is paying taxes to support it and would like to see something other than an arena downtown.

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jednc Burg

jednc

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The average citizen of this city is NOT paying anything for the arena. The average citizen in Charlotte doesn't live in a hotel...which is where most of the funding for this thing is coming from. There are no current property taxes going to fund the arena.
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reverbandwhiskey Hamlet

reverbandwhiskey

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The "average citizen" also kept saying "why build an arena? We should use that money to pay for streets and police officers." The "average citizen" didn't seem to understand that this revenue stream was, by law, only to be used for tourism related expenses.

The ones who continue to argue about the arena don't want to change their minds. They aren't interested in facts...they simply don't like the arena and just keep repeating the same old bull to argue the point.

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reverbandwhiskey Hamlet

reverbandwhiskey

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Whether that money was used to build an arena, aquarium, or farmers market it would have been going to the same exact pockets. The pockets of architects and construction companies. That is who would get the money.

The promoters, team owners, etc. get their money from ticket sales at the door. No taxpayer money went to Robert Johnson or anyone affiliated with the Charlotte Bobcats in the building of the Arena...it went to construction companies and archtects.

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Rufus Hamlet

Rufus

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remeber that the Georgia Aquarium is one of the largest aquariums in the world, giving great publicity. I believe Good Morning America did a full story on its opening and features. The arena never got that kind of national attention, and the baseball stadium probably wont get that attention.

also an aquarium or museum will still be dead space at some point in a day or even a week and most of the buildings hardly allow outside retail to occupy the space, other than their own gift shop which is usually only entered on the inside.

no one here seems to understand good planning is just that, a long term plan. nothing is spur of the moment, generating instant success and activity.

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reverbandwhiskey Hamlet

reverbandwhiskey

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remeber that the Georgia Aquarium is one of the largest aquariums in the world, giving great publicity. I believe Good Morning America did a full story on its opening and features. The arena never got that kind of national attention, and the baseball stadium probably wont get that attention.

also an aquarium or museum will still be dead space at some point in a day or even a week and most of the buildings hardly allow outside retail to occupy the space, other than their own gift shop which is usually only entered on the inside.

no one here seems to understand good planning is just that, a long term plan. nothing is spur of the moment, generating instant success and activity.

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uptownliving Town

uptownliving

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I would be in favor of tax dollars to fund an aquarium or farmers market...but folks...no serious proposal has come before the local GovCo asking for funding. So the reality is that it isn't a Arena vs Aquarium vs Farmers Market vs Baseball Stadium argument.

What we have before us now is a serious funding proposal for a baseball stadium and I am in favor of it. There is no choice of a farmers market in place of the baseball stadium...or an aquarium...those proposals simply don't exsit right now.

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