Turns out we didn’t need a new stadium to bring baseball back. Who knew? by Scott Bass
Mark the calendar. Remember the pageantry, the giant “Play Ball!” banner displayed prominently for the television cameras, the glitz and happy talk that ushered in Richmond’s glorious reintroduction to minor-league baseball.Yes, the Connecticut Defenders, the AA club from Norwich, Conn., will finally move here after much speculation and an unusual quiet period in which no one seemed to care much about the future of stickball in Richmond. History tells us the threats and the boogeymen will be back. We’ll need to build a new stadium when the panoply dissipates and concrete falls from the rafters, and we’ll hear a familiar refrain: If you don’t build it, they’ll leave.
So remember the date: Sept. 23, 2009. Remember how the Eastern League, home of the Defenders, worked overtime, jetting to Richmond and back, promising that the city would get a new team even after plans for a new ballpark in Shockoe Bottom died this summer. Remember how Joe McEacharn, the Eastern League president, stood under the canopy at the 17th Street Farmers’ Market in early summer and reiterated, sweat dripping from his brow, that Richmond, sans a new ballpark, was getting a team. Remember the last-minute conference call with Mayor Dwight Jones, during which Eastern League and Minor League Baseball officials swore allegiance to Richmond.
It’s for good reason. Richmond is a solid baseball market with a long history of success and strong demographics (lots of middle-class families with children). During the last build-it-or-they-won’t-come tour, courtesy of Highwood Properties and a group of local baseball-loving investors led by Bryan Bostic, baseball on the Boulevard was painted as a hideous failure, attendance at games falling off the map while numbers were up in most minor-league cities. If the community really wanted to keep baseball in the city, they insisted, it would need to build a grand new stadium — somewhere else.
“The Boulevard is really not adjacent to downtown, and while it has good interstate access, it really doesn’t fit the model that is being successfully deployed in other cities,” Paul Kreckman, senior vice president at Highwoods, declared in February. The choice was clear, Kreckman said. After 43 years, the Richmond Braves left a year ago for Gwinnett County, Ga., because the city failed to deliver a new stadium. “They did not build it and they left,” he said. “If we are going to have [baseball] as a community, then we need to have the venue that will attract baseball back here.”
Turns out that the Defenders, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, wasn’t the only team interested in Richmond. Four other teams jockeyed to play at the forlorn Boulevard, the Norwich Bulletin reports. Not only interested, but willing to invest their own money into fixing up The Diamond.
Long the key sticking point in the stadium debate — how many millions in tax dollars should the region, or the city, commit? — the new ownership group is dropping $1.5 million into the facility to improve seating, install new equipment and spruce up the place. In fact, the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, the regional entity that owns the stadium, is contributing less than $100,000 to the effort — $75,500 for general improvements and $18,000 to $20,000 to help fix up the scoreboard. Signing a two-year lease through 2011, with the option of three one-year extensions, the new team is expected to pay something slightly less than the $160,000 the Richmond Braves were paying. No tax dollars. Within a year the new team will begin kicking money back to the stadium authority. It pays for itself and starts making money within a year.
Kevin Reichard, editor of Ballpark Digest, says Richmond can thank Peter Kirk, a developer from Maryland who owns three baseball teams in the Atlantic League, which isn’t affiliated with Minor League Baseball. Kirk submitted a proposal to Richmond in early 2008 to tear down The Diamond and build a new, 8,000-seat stadium as part of a larger athletic complex on the Boulevard.
Kirk’s proposal forced Minor League Baseball into panic mode. Richmond is a coveted market, Reichard explains, and the league couldn’t afford to lose it.
“Peter has built every ballpark he’s said he’s going to build,” Reichard says. “[Minor League Baseball] did not want to lose Richmond.”
Remember just a few short months ago when The Diamond was a dog, an unplayable ballpark that no new baseball ownership group would touch with a 10-foot pole? Bostic repeatedly swore he had a team (but didn’t have enough money to buy it) and insisted that keeping baseball at the facility “wasn’t an option.”
Apparently it is. Turns out Richmond didn’t need to fork over millions to bring baseball back to town.
“The lesson should be,” Reichard says: “If you hold out for the best deal, you usually get it.”
1) Due to the floodplain, the empty swath of land in the Bottom upon which they proposed a ballpark cannot be developed unless there is a large development like a ballpark. Quite simply, federal law prohibits it.
2) The Bottom ballpark would not be built on the burial ground. BUT, it would make it possible for the area around the burial ground to be developed, to include a first class heritage museum. A heritage museum CANNOT be built on that site without another development like a ballpark unless it is built to a truly massive scale, which is something that neither the heritage tourism market (see the declining figures for Jamestown/Yorktown/W'burg), nor private/public funding, can support.
3) The Boulevard and Bottom are not the same, because to have a walkable, mixed use development/community at the Diamond location you would have to build the entire community. In the Bottom, you already have a walkable neighborhood loaded with restaurants. To do that at the Boulevard, you would basically have to create another West Broad Village-style development.
4) A Bottom ballpark would help connect all of the great work that has been done on Broad Street, the riverfront, and Tobacco Row. It would also capitalize on the millions of dollars we have already poured into the Canal Walk and improving Bottom infrastructure. The Boulevard offers no such synergies.
5) Finally, baseball on the Boulevard has already been tried, and failed to spur development. Baseball in the Bottom has not been tried. Why repeat failure?
Let's put the Boulevard to its best and highest use - not baseball.
Monday, October 05, 2009 1:27:26 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
FanGuy, My, oh, my, you are such a silly guy!
The same complaint could be said regarding the Shockoe Bottom site, hence the many-splendored dreams of building restaurants etc. etc. and using the stadium as a anchor to bring in business development.
One of the positives of the Boulevard location is that it would not interefere with a slave burial ground.
Further, the Boulevard and Scott's addition do have long-term business and could certainly enjoy having more. Cafe 64 has been an outstanding success. The school system and the city need to figure out a better use for the Arthur Ashe Center and the warehouses on Arlington Road. There are limitless possibilities for making the area very family friendly and consumer driven. But, all plans have basically been "on hold" for the last four years given the hyperbolic polarization between City Hall and the Business Community.
Why don't you try to remain positive and open to the idea that the Boulevard location for the stadium will not only less expensive to build upon, but will also bring in new development?
Fourth, you have something to refute that? Unless you are counting Bill's Barbecue, the storage place, or Greyhound, that is DEAD ON. If you think that is development, we will never have a common ground for having a discussion. Movieland and Stronghill opened long AFTER the Braves announced their departure. Anyone who thinks the Boulevard has "blossomed" because of baseball is channeling Baghdad Bob.
Move baseball out of there and let the Boulevard become the mixed use development that it should be and that citizens deserve.
Saturday, October 03, 2009 6:42:30 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
"I don't know why people want to waste taxpayer money on a location that failed to generate any development along the Boulevard in the more than 40 years baseball was played there, and that has otherwise utterly failed to bring new revenues to the City."
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:02:42 PM by FanGuy
The are many more examples of this in threads that are on Church Hill People's News.
Saturday, October 03, 2009 4:08:26 PM by anonymous
FanGuy is a bully, similar in manner to Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly. He has repeatedly stated that the area along the Boulevard/Diamon is akin to a wasteland.
I appreciate that 4th stands up to him and tries to reason with him. But, he is hopeless. Utterly hopeless and mean-spirited.
Saturday, October 03, 2009 3:53:04 PM by Richmond Newbie
Wow. As someone who has never read any comments in Style before, I'd like to suggest that FanGuy and Fourth Estate Fan meet somewhere in public and get your aggression out once and for all. Your anonymous p!ss!ng contest is cowardly and does nothing to promote your respective views.
4th Estate, I didn't ask for "each and every disparaging remark," I just want ONE example. You can't give it. And if you were so worried about libel, you wouldn't be making baseless accusations about things I've said. Your approach is cowardly.
Thursday, October 01, 2009 4:35:46 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
FanGuy, For the record, I am not Jason Roop. Nor am I ignorant of libel law and I will not dredge up and repeat each and every disparaging remark YOU have posted demeaning the Boulevard and the businesses in Scott's Addition. Were I to do so, I would be aiding and abetting your assault on these businesses and those who are working hard to improve the Boulevard and the City of Richmond.
Interesting that you should mention the firefighter article. Have you been the one madly posting wild, anonymous e-mails that have no basis in fact?
Tired of throwing potentially libelous hand grenades at the businesses along the Boulevard and in Scott's Addition, so now you are branching out into other stories? You should be ashamed. Very ashamed.
Jason Roop, er, I mean FourthEstate, cite me an example of disparaging the Boulevard? I have had nothing but complimentary things to say about Movieland and Stronghill dining. But those two great establishments do not make the area a destination, because the area still is not walkable. Until you do something about the storage place and the Greyhound station, there isn't much that can be done in the immediate vicinity of the Diamond.
The great Boulevard baseball experiment has failed to make the Boulevard all that it can be. Time for baseball to go elsewhere and to bring in some mixed use development to the Boulevard that will provide city residents with some of the shops and services they can't currently find in the city.
Why are you so opposed to making the best use out of the Boulevard???
PS - Jason, instead of weighing in on this thread, shouldn't you be more concerned with cleaning up the mess from the fire fighter article?
Thursday, October 01, 2009 1:36:47 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
FanGuy,
There you go again. It would be great if you were as all-knowing and smart as you pretend to be. Your modus operandi is to bully and insult people who proffer an opinion that is contrary to yours. Northside is right. You have insulted the businesses on the Boulevard and in Scott's Addition. The "draw" you keep referencing in your comments about the Bottom (GIVE IT UP AND GET OVER IT, ALREADY) are all establishments that are more for the 20-something crowd into the bar-scene. While 20-somethings undoubtedly go to baseball games, the nature of the game is multi-generational and children are very much a part of the experience.
I know there are business owners in the Boulevard area that are looking forward to investing in the future of the Diamond in its current location and people are more than a bit tired of your non-stop negativity.
Stop being a "Johnny-One-Note" and disparaging the possibility of a positive rebirth of the area. Doesn't it get boring being you? Try becoming a part of the solution of improving life in Richmond as we know it. Sell your property in the Bottom and invest along the Boulevard and in Scott's Addition.
Thursday, October 01, 2009 8:56:39 AM by Anonymous
In response to NotTHATFanGuy: I personally would rather see the Bottom modernized and brought back to pre- Gaston days first before the city goes about trying to re-invent the Diamond. History implies past, and the area around the Diamond is currently an industrial district which is prospering quite well. It just so happens to have an athletic complex in it that isn't fairing as well. In regards to your restaurant ion, none of them are within walking distance ( Virginia BBQ is though). Which is my point. I'm not saying the Bottom is the best place to build a park, but at least there are numerous places to visit, eat and drink at within walking distance before the game. The Diamond has had baseball for a fairly long time and has yet to be popular. Maybe we are putting the cart before the horse and Richmond just can't support a sports team. The Braves have left and they never had decent attendance, The Renegades (1+2) almost had to give their tickets away before packing it up.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:02:42 PM by FanGuy
Northsider, how about you answer the question. Who paid for those studies? I think you'll find your little hypothesis to be completely false.
And get your facts straight before you start throwing stones. I have not insulted the Boulevard. I have stated facts about its current status.
I live in the Fan and want the Boulevard to succeed. The path to success, however, is not baseball - it's mixed used development, stores, etc. As a Fan resident, it would be great if I didn't have to drive to one of the counties to hit up a number of different stores you can't find in the city. The Boulevard is the perfect location for that.
I don't know why people want to waste taxpayer money on a location that failed to generate any development along the Boulevard in the more than 40 years baseball was played there, and that has otherwise utterly failed to bring new revenues to the City. If you truly wanted the Boulevard to succeed, you wouldn't support the return of something that failed to help the Boulevard develop.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:03:25 PM by Northsider
FanGuy: Who paid for those studies? Isn't it true that whoever pays the fiddler gets to call the tune? Why do you repeatedly insult the current location of the stadium and the businesses near it? Bet those businesses wish you would get a job somewhere so you would have less time to blog and denigrate the neighborhood and their efforts for transforming it into a more vital area of the city.
You probably own a lot of property in the Bottom, which is why it makes sense for you to promote that area. Please don't forget, there are people who own property and businesses near the Diamond that see this as a wonderful opportunity to help the city and the area improve. IDEA! Maybe you should buy some property near the Diamond, then you might see how damaging your constant insults of that area really are. It might also inspire you to stop complaining about the Boulevard location and the people at Style Weekly.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 2:13:33 PM by FanGuy
NotThat Interesting that you would mention "higher use," because multiple studies have found that the highest and best use of the Boulevard location is NOT baseball.
Read the Crupi report and read the Davenport study from 2008.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 12:43:56 PM by NotTHATFanGuy
Anonymous, how does one modernize a city if it does not put to higher use prime real estate that just happens to have a light industrial history.This area is a sports venue already with facilities such as the Sports Backers complex, Parker Field Annex, and the Aruthur Ashe Center. If the first RMA Diamond renovation plan had not been scuttled by City Hall bunglers, infrastructure/development gurus, and would be baseball tycoons we might have also had an olympic size swimming complex in that area. As for the food issue, the Diamond had mediocre food choices I hope the new owners have some appreciation for quality and variety. However, if you are hungry before or after a game check out Gus's, Strong Hill, Buzz and Ned's, or Kitchen 64 if you can not find one of them satisfactory, down to Robinson Street or Cary Town. This part of town has really great restaurants. In the mean time, chill down, baseball on the Boulevard is going to be very popular. Progress has to start before it can thrive.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 10:25:12 AM by FanGuy
4th Estate, shouldn't you be working on your next article for Style?
You can bury your head in "journalism 101" all you would like, the fact remains that this piece is an editorial, not a news piece. You attacked me over my comment, which is directly supported by the RTD story (obviously the RTD did its homework instead of writing a lazy, mis-informed 'I told you so' piece).
Considering Style prides itself on holding others accountable, it is disappointing you or Style would take such offense to others holding Style accountable for lazy or inaccurate "reporting." Perhaps that is why journalists are held in such low regard these days.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:59:22 AM by Fourth Estate Fan
FanGuy, Anyone who reads these pages knows that you consistently take cheap shots at Style that are baseless. Your attacks on this newspaper, its reporters and editors reveal much about what you do not know about journalism.
All I did was to ask you the standard 5Ws and and an H, simple journalism 101 stuff. And, once again, you mistake my refusal to allow you to attack the hard-working journalists at Style with your unrelenting attacks on their professionalism as an attack on you. You are so very wrong on this point. I just want to make sure people see that there are many ways to determine the validity of your remarks.
Every newspaper makes mistakes and Style is not perfect by any means. But, Scott Bass has done an exemplary job on the baseball stadium stories and yet you continue to attack him and this publication simply because you disagree with him. Jason Roop has offered you the opportunity to have your say and more on a BackPage. Yet, you refuse to reveal yourself or what your personal biases may be on this issue.
You clearly prefer to complain and malign the one newspaper in this town that doesn't talk down to its readers and is willing to go beyond the "he said, she said " school of journalism.
Style goes beyond the "he said/she said" and actually attempts to do some investigative reporting, something this town needs if we are ever to make this a vital and booming place to live and raise our families.
I wish you could be a part of the solution, rather than sounding like Ty Cobb on his meanest and most low-down day.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:35:15 AM by Anonymous
Sooner or later Richmond will get a new ball park. The area surrounding the Diamond is just not a good fit for any ballpark. Its a recreational facility in the middle of an industrial park. If I want to bring my family or friends to a game, there is no place close to grab a bite to eat nor have a few beers before or after the game. Besides, the Diamond is an ugly concrete jungle.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:34:04 AM by FanGuy
Fourth Estate, read the RTD article:
Regarding Domino's take on the issue "He doesn't want the franchise's willingness to upgrade The Diamond, however, to be interpreted as operators' satisfaction with the facility as a long-term solution."
And you don't know what I do and don't know. But once again, thanks for the personal attack. I admire your consistency.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 1:53:36 AM by NotTHATFanGuy
Hurrah! Baseball, professional baseball, for baseball fans, at an improved, great baseball park on the Boulevard. Of course money can be made, if the owners know what they are doing. Baldwin got stuck in a rut - It's not just the baseball game anymore, it is the entire experience that needs to be marketed and delivered. Note to new owners: $2.00 beer nights had huge crowds.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:21:56 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
*bringing* .... not bring. Pardon the poor typing.5
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:19:34 PM by Fourth Estate Fan
You write: "The Defenders are investing in the Diamond to get it usable again - nothing more. "
How do you know this? Who told you? When and where were you when you learned this. What imbues you with the ability to read minds and listen behind closed doors? Why do you attack Style relentlessly? When will you accept Jason Roop's offer to write a BackPage, provided you identify yourself? What do you stand to gain personally from bring baseball back to the Diamond?
This article is so bent on saying "I told you so" that is misses the bigger point - which is that no one has said the Diamond is a permanent return destination. Even if a ballpark had been built in the Bottom, a new team would have had to play in the Diamond for at least another 2 seasons. The Defenders are investing in the Diamond to get it usable again - nothing more. People didn't come to the Diamond for the Braves largely because of the venue nothing has changed in that regard. Until something new gets done, no team will make $$$ here, and the greater benefit to Richmond will remain negligible.
Too bad Style can't just stick to covering the news.
