Group raises
enough money to save Tiger Stadium -- for now
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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The
Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy says it's raised
$420,000 -- in less than two weeks, mind you -- as
a deposit on the preservation of
Tiger
Stadium, leading city officials to look to
reverse a vote last week to tear down the entire
ballpark. A scrap-metal demolition firm has been
working on the demolition of the old ballpark at
the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, which opened
the same day as Fenway Park. The long-term plan is
preserve the original Navin Field grandstand (its
original name) and augment it with a sports
museum. The group, which includes longtime Tiger
broadcaster Ernie Harwell, raised $20,000 online,
$400,000 through Harwell's foundation, and secured
loans for $700,000. A $4 million earmark is making
its way through the federal budget, and federal
and state tax credits will make up the rest of the
$15 million needed for preservation and
construction. This is an amazing development: many
in Detroit city government had given up on the
preservation of
Tiger
Stadium; that this group rallied to raise so
much money in a rather short amount of time should
be an inspiration for anyone wanting to save an
old ballpark. The Detroit City Council will vote
today on the preservation effort, but one
prominent foe already concedes the ballpark should
be saved.
More from AP. Tiger Stadium is a prominent member of our
Endangered Ballparks listings.
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Harwell: I can save Tiger Stadium;
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Today's video: The final days of Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium plan hits a snag;
Tiger Stadium's fate divisive;
Tiger Stadium: Up for auction?;
Tiger Stadium outta here by '08;
Time running out for Tiger Stadium;
Dave Wright: Time to let Tiger Stadium go;
Razing memories of
95-year-old Tiger Stadium before demolition work
begins;
Final farewell planned for Tiger Stadium;
Old house is hard to forget;
Once a baseball cathedral, Tiger Stadium now sits
in disrepair;
Memories of Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium demolition delayed;
Progress is in the ballpark;
Developers didn't stand a chance with Tiger
Stadium;
Artifacts from Tiger Stadium to be auctioned off
under city plan;
Tiger Stadium to be razed: condos, retail to be
built on historic site;
Detroit should sell Tiger Stadium as is;
Historical marker at Tiger Stadium stolen;
Tiger Stadium would make fine vacation destination;
8 innings of words get us no closer to a Tiger
Stadium fix;
Documentary makes case for saving Tiger Stadium;
Plenty of options for Tiger Stadium;
Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick wants Tiger Stadium razed;
Hope fades for Tiger Stadium;
Detroit ignores calls to save Tiger Stadium;
Save Tiger Stadium as scaled-down ballpark;
City should tear down Tiger Stadium;
Is it the final out for Tiger Stadium?
Knights
ballpark is a go after legal mess resolved
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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A
new Uptown ballpark for the Charlotte Knights
(Class AAA; International League) should finally
move ahead after legal challenges to the
land-procurement formula were tossed out of court.
Basically, developer Jerry Reese -- who wants to
bring MLB baseball to Charlotte as part of a
billion-dollar development -- challenged the way
Mecklenburg County swapped land (as opposed to
using bond money on it) to land the site of a new
Knights ballpark, which will be privately
financed. The ruling by Judge W. David Lee threw
out all of Reese's claims, saying the county board
was within its rights to procure the land. Reese
filed several suits, but eventually all of them
were dismissed. We're now looking at a 2010
opening for the ballpark, but some issues do
remain -- like final approval and the arranging of
financing for the team.
More from the Charlotte Observer.
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Atlantic League
reportedly interested in Richmond market
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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We're
not entirely sure how serious this is: the
independent Atlantic League is reportedly
interested in placing a team in Richmond next
season, after the Richmond Braves (Class AAA;
International League) leave the market. Now,
there's no question the Atlantic League would
succeed in The Diamond and Richmond: it's a solid
product and Richmond is a solid market. But it's
solid enough for affiliated baseball to work to
keep the market, and while there are some
questions about a new ballpark, there's no
question a Class AA Eastern League team would do
quite well there. The interest of the Atlantic
League, however, will probably cause some folks in
St. Petersburg to pay even more attention to the
process of deciding what happens to the market.
More from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
WhiteWings open
the doors for free the rest of the season
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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As
Harlingen, Cameron County and the surrounding
communities clean up damage caused by Hurricane
Dolly, the Harlingen WhiteWings (independent;
United League Baseball) announced they will
provide free admission to the remainder of the
home schedule.
"With everyone being impacted by the storm we want to do our part
in providing some relief with giving free
admission to every one of our last nine home
games," WhiteWings General Manager Dave Kost said.
"Driving around the city and the outlying areas,
you see the devastation that has been left behind
but more impressively, you see a community working
together to get life returned to normal."
The WhiteWings’ remaining nine home games are scheduled for
July 30-August 4 and August 12-14.
Suns giving
away the moon
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The
Hagerstown Suns (Low Class A; Sally League) are
giving away the moon -- kinda.
As part of a promotion tonght, the
Suns will be giving 100 fans a chance to win a
three-acre plot on the surface of the moon as the
future site of the "Hagerstown Moons." Party
Hearty Inflatables will be providing a Moon Bounce
to be used as part of the contest. "We’ve been the
Hagerstown Suns for 28 years, the Hagerstown
Raindrops for a few days and maybe someday we will
rightfully be called the Hagerstown Moons," said
Suns GM Will Smith.
The winner of the promotion will be presented a registered
claim and deed for lunar property from the Lunar
Republic Society, along with a photograph of the
plot near the Mare Orientale and Montes Rook on
the face of the moon.
Blowfish honor
Dreyfuss
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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As
a founder of the World Series and the longtime
owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Barney Dreyfuss
was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of
Fame Sunday. We're not going to spend any time on
the induction ceremonies, which were widely
covered (here's
the story from the Hall of Fame itself), but
we do want to note another ceremony honoring
Dreyfuss. Sunday also saw the Columbia Blowfish
(summer collegiate; Coastal Plain League) honor
Dreyfuss: he built the field that is now Capital
City Stadium in the 1920s, when he owned the
Pirates and its farm team, the Columbia Comers.
The ballpark was known as Dreyfuss Field opened on
May 21, 1927 and was known by that name until the
late 1940s.
At the induction ceremony, Andrew Dreyfuss (Barney's great
grandson) gave homage to Columbia in his
acceptance speech: "I'll close with a story that
illustrates our great-grandfather's generosity and
dedication to baseball. In the 1920's, Pittsburgh
had a minor league team, the Comers, in Columbia,
South Carolina. In 1926, Columbia's wooden stadium
burned to the ground and the City did not have the
resources to build a new one. Barney Dreyfuss was
so passionate about Baseball that he donated the
necessary funds to build a new stadium. Columbia's
Dreyfuss Field opened for play in 1927 and has
housed minor league and college teams for the past
eighty-one (81) years. At seven o'clock tonight,
the Columbia Blowfish of the Coastal Plain League
will play on the original Dreyfuss Field wearing
1927 replica jerseys to honor Barney Dreyfuss.
What a wonderful tribute!"
Interestingly, the city managed to misname a street behind
the ballpark: Blowfish owner Bill Shanahan has
asked the city to change the sign to the correct
spelling of Dreyfuss Road.
Topeka ballpark
planning moves to private sector
Posted July 29, 2008 (feedback)
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Planning
for a new Topeka ballpark -- carried out to date
by Stewart Sports Group and the DLR Group, funded
by the private Go Topeka group -- is at a
standstill while additional sources of private
financing are arranged. Technically, the contract
for specific services has expired, and Stewart is
seeking a new contract to represent the city in
negotiations with independent leagues and
overseeing private development of the park.
Landing the Topeka market will require some
capital: the city has made it plain it will not be
funding a new ballpark.
More detail at the Topeka Capital-Journal.
Congress
extends investigation of Yankee Stadium funding
plan
Posted July 28, 2008 (feedback)
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The
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
continues its investigation of new Yankee Stadium
funding by focusing on whether the city inflated
the value of land under the ballpark in order to
justify higher levels of bonding. Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio) is looking at two wildly
different estimates of ballpark land -- one of
$275 per square foot and another of $45 -- and
seeing whether the higher valuation was used
inappropriately. It's hard to say any land in New
York City is worth only $45 a square foot, but the
implications are obvious: the level of available
bonding must be tied to the actual value of the
land, and if the city inflated the worth of the
land then the bonding deal was potentially
illegal. There are two real targets here:
The $941 million in original bonding could be
subject to higher taxes, while the Yankees'
request for $366 million in additional bonds could
also be subject to higher taxes. Then again, the
House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform has a way of making a lot of
noise and then never following up with anything
tangible; witness the ballyhooed steroid hearings
that led nowhere.
More from the New York Daily News.
Nats raise
hackles of enviros with Exxon advertising
Posted July 28, 2008 (feedback)
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When
you're pushed for a "green" ballpark and
positioned yourself as a friend of the
environment, you have certain obligations from a
marketing viewpoint. That's why for many the large
ExxonMobil ad on the left-field wall at Nationals
Park has become a symbol for opponents of the oil
giant, who want to see the Washington Nationals
drop its advertising relationship. The team has
made environmental awareness a cornerstone of this
year's marketing moves -- a recent home series
included an ExxonMobil-sponsored promotion with
the Alliance to Save Energy -- but the team and
ExxonMobil are still drawing criticism from Mike
Tidwell, the leader of Strike Out Exxon: "The more
environmental the Nationals make that park seem,
the stronger the payday for Exxon,” Tidwell told
The New York Times. "It’s an amazing
perversion." No, it's not a perversion: it's a
reality of the modern corporate world. If a
baseball team had to rely on marketing dollars
from companies pure of spirit, you'd see a lot of
empty boards on the outfield wall: those against
drunken driving would eliminate beer and liquor
advertising, and Lord know a lot of mainstays in
MLB marketing -- like airlines and truck companies
-- are among the biggest polluters on the planet.
And let's not even discuss any marketing dollars
from the likes of Lyondell or 3M.
We know that green marketing is the wave of the
future -- in fact, we're putting the final touches
on a new site covering green sports venues -- but
some criticisms border on the silly.
Fan seriously
hurt after Shea Stadium fall -- again
Posted July 28, 2008 (feedback)
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A
fan was seriously hurt after a fall at
Shea Stadium,
four months after another fan was killed in a
similar incident. Justin Larson, 26, fell from the
box-seat level to the floor near Gate D at around
10 p.m.; he remains in intensive care. Larson was
reportedly sliding down the handrail of a broken
escalator before he lost his balance and fell. As
you might expect, the New York Mets are
withholding comment. In April, Antonio
Nararainsami of Brooklyn fell two levels from an
escalator as he was leaving a Mets game.
Left-field
stands at Tiger Stadium removed; group faces
funding deadline
Posted July 28, 2008 (feedback)
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The
left-field seating at
Tiger
Stadium has been removed, giving fans a little
different look at the Corner. Originally there was
housing beyond the left-field fence at
Tiger
Stadium, but in 1938 the
owners of the Tigers totally enclosed what was
then known as Briggs Stadium.
More from the Detroit Free Press. As work
continues on the ballpark demolition, advocates of
saving the original Navin Field grandstand face an
important deadline: they have until Aug. 1 --
Friday -- to come up with $369,000 as a deposit on
restoration and conservancy.
Tiger Stadium is a prominent member of our
Endangered Ballparks listings.
RELATED STORIES:
Will
conservancy group meet June 1 deadline to save
Tiger Stadium?;
Tiger Stadium demolition OK'd; could baseball
return?;
Fans shell out $2
million for Tiger Stadium seats;
Nonprofit
submits plans for saving part of Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium auction a $192,729 home run;
Online auction of
Tiger Stadium memorabilia runs through October;
A new vision for Tiger Stadium;
Harwell heats up Tiger Stadium pitch;
Harwell: I can save Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium to be torn down;
Tiger Stadium demolition plan close to vote;
Wreck the old park; praise the new one;
Detroit City Council delays action on Tiger
Stadium demolition;
City: Revisit Tiger Stadium plans;
Today's video: The final days of Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium plan hits a snag;
Tiger Stadium's fate divisive;
Tiger Stadium: Up for auction?;
Tiger Stadium outta here by '08;
Time running out for Tiger Stadium;
Dave Wright: Time to let Tiger Stadium go;
Razing memories of
95-year-old Tiger Stadium before demolition work
begins;
Final farewell planned for Tiger Stadium;
Old house is hard to forget;
Once a baseball cathedral, Tiger Stadium now sits
in disrepair;
Memories of Tiger Stadium;
Tiger Stadium demolition delayed;
Progress is in the ballpark;
Developers didn't stand a chance with Tiger
Stadium;
Artifacts from Tiger Stadium to be auctioned off
under city plan;
Tiger Stadium to be razed: condos, retail to be
built on historic site;
Detroit should sell Tiger Stadium as is;
Historical marker at Tiger Stadium stolen;
Tiger Stadium would make fine vacation destination;
8 innings of words get us no closer to a Tiger
Stadium fix;
Documentary makes case for saving Tiger Stadium;
Plenty of options for Tiger Stadium;
Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick wants Tiger Stadium razed;
Hope fades for Tiger Stadium;
Detroit ignores calls to save Tiger Stadium;
Save Tiger Stadium as scaled-down ballpark;
City should tear down Tiger Stadium;
Is it the final out for Tiger Stadium?