I usually just do my posts here and let the comments flow to whatever people are most interested in. But on this one, I seek your feedback. Let me know what you think about a baseball stadium downtown.
Sometimes, when members of the editorial board are pretty much in agreement on something, I think it's a good idea to invite members from the opposite side in to try to convince us we're wrong, just to make sure we're not overlooking something. We're probably going to do that in the near future on the issue of a downtown baseball stadium. Our new publisher, Steve Broas, doesn't know the background or the issues involved enough, so he's keeping an open mind. But my colleague Bob Caylor and I are skeptical at best.
Just two of our objections:
1. We already have a perfectly good stadium. It works, it will last a long time, it draws customers who spend money in the area. If we put a new stadium downtown, there is no way to keep Memorial Stadium profitable, so hello to a new parking lot. Taxpayers paid for the stadium with their food & beverage tax, after being told it would go away when the coliseum expansion was done. So, lied to at the beginning, the stadium is torn down, and we have to pay for a new one downtown, too. That would represent being screwed three times.
2. I don't think a stadium will be quite the magic bullet for downtown that people think it will be. A good game draws about 3,000 people, yes? How many home games are there? How long does the season last? And how long, if everything goes as smoothly as possible, will this take to accomplish? Can we expect downtown to rebound and thrive while one parcel is sitting empty waiting for the baseball stadium? If we're going to make it a mult-purpose facility to get around the seasonal nature of baseball, what else goes there, and what will it cost?
There's more, but I think those are plenty of questions for the downtown stadium boosters to answer for now. I can't believe it is good economic-development strategy to move something that's working from a part of town you think can stand to lose it to a part of town you want to develop at its expense.
What to you think? Are there objections you'd like us to raise with them? Or am I, er, off-base, trying to stand in the way of downtown's best shot?
I certainly hope our sports columnist Reggie Hayes is wrong:
I still believe Memorial Stadium works, and can continue to work, in its easily accessible locale, for years to come. But sometimes momentum for change is unstoppable, and this is starting to look suspiciously that way.
Most people in Fort Wayne, including me, will give even something they don't agree with the benefit of the doubt and a chance to succeed if they think it's been honestly debated, with all the pros and cons weighed, and citizen input seriously considered. If that's not the case here -- if some are bound and determined to do it no matter what -- it won't be the thing that saves downtown. It will be the last nail in the coffin.
