During Panthers home games one of the NCDOT/Amtrak Piedmonts runs on an earlier schedule. Four trains will be stopping at the State Fair this year. This will need some sort of high capacity transit option. Build a permanent blue ridge road station. Lease some commuter equipment and get the contracts signed with Norfolk Southern to allow a Durham-Stadium round trip and Wake Forest-Stadium roundtrip on gamedays.
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So some think that it would be either Nashville or Charlotte that win one of the next round of possible team options. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride…Poor second place Raleigh 
What to do, what to do?
Notes on that:
Charlotte:
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Downtown AAA stadium that would likely need to be moved bc it can’t expand to MLB standards (unless they put a district out in Concord)
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Richest man in Charlotte (Tepper) owns Panthers and just bought MLS. Now has to build an MLS stadium, after recently asking for money for a practice facility. He’s going to jump in on baseball now and ask for another stadium, for a team that will compete during the same season as his MLS investment?
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So if not Tepper, who? And will Tepper play nice with any outsider billionaire who wants in HIS market?
Nashville:
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Just asked for $1 billion of public money for new NFL stadium.
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Just got $250 million of public money for MLS stadium.
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Those in the know say Nashville public money well is dry
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Nashville COULD be fully funded by private money. But MLB/owners want a group tied with at least some public money bc they want to make sure money will be there in the future when they need stadium upgrades/expansions.
21 Likes
@Loup20 thanks for your work on this. I would love MLB in Raleigh and it is very exciting that Dundon is now involved, although I noticed in some of the articles yesterday he seemed to hedge more about Raleigh vs Charlotte. He indicated a preference for Raleigh, but seemed to be open to Charlotte if that was preferred.
Also, to be fair, if we are noting public money already allocated, Raleigh is spending $350 million for PNC renovations, and our entire hospitality tax just got allocated to a variety of projects including PNC renovations, conference center expansion, conference center hotel, and Cary indoor facility.
I look forward to learning more about who else is involved, potential sites, pretty renderings of concept stadiums, potential names, etc. I would definitely go to games and watch on TV if we get a team. I lived in DC when the Nats came, and it was really cool to see the start of a new city institution. It took a few years, but they are a real part of DC now. Would love to see that happen here.
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nOt EnOuGh RoOm fOr PaRkiNggGGgggg!!!
A commuter station here is part of both the S-Line plan and GoTriangle’s regional rail plan!
This would be desperately needed if this ends up at PNC. Really, it should already exist.
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Nashville and Charlotte has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in public money to support their current teams. This issue is not unique to Raleigh, what Charlotte and Nashville have that is going against them is that both are going to have to spend billions of dollars for new NFL stadiums.
Agreed. Nashvegas has committed to the new, domed stadium already. I was going to ask @Loup20 but this is open to any of y’all, isn’t BofA stadium in Charlotte due for a major over haul as well?
With Wake Co’s tourism tax committed, are we going to be looking for some state money to support this?
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Governor Cooper is behind a NC team, but current legislators are not going to give $$ to cities full of liberals.
Thanks. That made me laugh. North Carolina has been handing out incentives in more recent years to a lot of businesses no matter where they are located. I think this will be no different.
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It will happen while MLB hasn’t announced the expansion yet maybe not until 2025, if we start deciding on a stadium now and the city and state start supporting it now and rezone all the possible stadium sites now I’ll be a smooth ride. Nashville and Raleigh can have teams the red be no territorial overlap.
We don’t need them if they don’t give a fuck, but I think this will be privately funded. But I’ve seen Tom Dundon and Steve Malik have a good relationship so maybe and this is why I think Downtown South will be the spot. There can be two entertainment districts
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Dunedin said it make take “years” even though expansion may not be till 2025, but if we have the right stadium place we can outdo that other NC city.
Gentlemen, I never thought that I would see a possibility of seeing our great city having MLB ! At 75 years old, I sure hope to see this happen! 
24 Likes
It’s crunch time. I spoke to the MLB Raleigh group there saying all options are on the table. I still believe Downtown South will be the choice. I warn him about this being possibly taxpayer funded which may not go over well with folks. So I hope it’s privately funded, or the city can pay for some of it.
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You know @Loup20 is half of the MLB Raleigh effort, right? He’s spoken here pretty frequently and been pretty transparent where he can about their mission. And I don’t think Lou or his MLB Raleigh partner really have anything to do with how this gets funded. There’s also a desire to have the stadium as a joint partnership, not fully private for diversity reasons.
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This feels like another thing we talk about and plan for 18 months just to watch it go to Charlotte in the end.
You do understand the city would pay for some of it… with taxpayer funds, yes? 
After reading this morning’s N&O story, I got the same feeling deep in my gut.
The potential problem is big, private local money.
But from everything @Loup20 has written here over the years, the careful planning and thought he and his group clearly invested in this, I am really hopeful this works out for R’wood.
2 Likes