Wow Lou! This is a tremendous article concerning Raleigh MLB ! I am so excited about our possibilities to get MLB in Raleigh. Great work here Lou! Thanks A Million!
Is it me or is this starting to feel real…?
I don’t want to get my hopes up, but…
It feels definitely feels more real but also still so far out
The city of Fayetteville NC
Correct. Fayetteville.
The Forbes article is mind blowing. What we all knew, the media is picking up. Plus our grassroots organization is a tremendous asset. Send the Raleigh MLB link to supporters.
499,825 per the latest 2024 Census estimate. We have to starting pushing the 500K number.
New article in the SBJ.
Brian Fork is coming out and confirming some of the behind the scenes stuff I’ve been trying to hint on here.
“We have places identified that are potential targets, and there could be additional ones that we haven’t identified yet,” Fork said. “But the real question right now is when is baseball ready to expand? If they said we’re going to make a decision next summer then I think we would be ready to jump into action right now. But if that decision may not come for 2-3 years, then we want to be cognizant of circumstances can change and we want to be ready and pull the right levers at the right time.”
“We’ve been having preliminary conversations with the business community and our elected officials on what are the right strategies to find a place to build a stadium and find a way to pay for the stadium, and everybody’s aligned on making it happen and working together.”
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“They did so much so early, in terms of lining up appropriate levels of funding, so now they’re waiting to see what will happen with MLB,” a source familiar with team sale matters told SBJ. “This is not a state and local community that’s starting from scratch in terms of raising capital.”
So there you go. This things is and has been real for a long time.
Fork added, “There are a variety of sites around Raleigh where the stadium could go. One of them is adjacent to where the 80 acres are. But there are other sites both publicly owned and privately owned in the area around our arena, but also downtown, which is about 10 minutes away.”
Assuming they’re talking about Downtown South, or are there other sites they have in mind?
I would think it has to be another site for him to specifically refer to it as downtown.
Yeah, them directly mentioning downtown is new. I assumed it was just downtown south that was possible/viable. Hearing the CEO of the Hurricanes directly mention downtown is interesting.
Would be reaaaallly tight and probably an unusual layout of the stands. Quick google search says Vegas and Minneapolis stadiums are on similar sized lots? Maybe I’ll try to mock it up. Can’t get much better from a transit perspective if we can use the rail lines heading North, West, and South (x2).
(Edit: would have to elevated over the tracks. And Boylan Heights would shit a brick.)
There might be a location I dont know about, but I wouldn’t get too caught up in that wording. I’m reading that as DT South.
The only way that location would work is if the Western Blvd BRT gets built and there are parking decks/lots at stops near 440 and 40.
I don’t want to be a wet towel, but that location has just too many barriers to being successful, plus it’s unnecessarily poking the bear, and God knows that we don’t need to do that for no reason at all.
I’d LOVE to find a viable location downtown. I’d love to find a location between downtown proper and Downtown South: somewhere near Dix would be ideal, but that also has huge challenges.
If Raleigh is going to be awarded a franchise, it’s going to have to be an absolute no-brainer for MLB. And that is how it’s being approached. Create a situation they just can’t say no to.
We are a no-brainer when it comes to viability metrics, and the fact that we have Tom Dundon, who is not only a successful sports franchise owner, but has success in THIS market (and is tied down here with a long lease for the Hurricanes and ent/sports district development rights around the stadium.) gives us a huge leg up.
But we need to be a no brainer in two more areas…
1.) Public/Private partnership
There needs to be a 3 way partnership here between the government, the ownership group and MLB. You have to realize that the Tampa and Oakland situations have been very bad PR for MLB. And they can’t afford for more markets to get into this situation. So, they need the next two teams they add to be ‘sure things’.
What i mean by that is , you cant be having owners constantly holding cities/states hostage with stadium demands. Fix it (or build me a new one) or I’ll leave, and then start courting other markets to get the deal done. This creates stalemates and bad blood between owner and government..which eventually seeps down into the fan base.
2.) Make it PROFITABLE
At the end of the day the owners are voting to choose which teams get added. You know what they care about? MONEY. The markets that can guarantee the most money are the markets that will get the most votes. Why? Baseball operates with a revenue-sharing model.
They do local revenue pooling (under the current collective bargaining agreement). each of the 30 MLB teams contributes 48% of their local revenues to a central pool. Local revenues include ticket sales, local TV and radio deals, concessions, merchandise, and other stadium-related income. This pool is then divided equally among all 30 teams, with each receiving approximately 3.3% of the total pool.
*This is why we push the fact that NC has 3 Top-50 media markets in the state.
They also participate in National Revenue Sharing. National media deals are shared equally among all teams. In 2023, each team received about $60.1 million from this national revenue pool.
But the more revenue the team makes, the better the players they can sign, which equates to how competative they are, which then sells more tickets, which nets more revenue (which is then shared).
MLB and their owners don’t want to deal with a cash strapped owner who cant sign players, and thus can’t get competative, which in the end means less money shared to them.
This is why MLB/owners are going to 100% look for a bid that has an entertainment/sports district connected to it. That real estate revenue (as just proven by the Braves) is MASSIVE and will ensure that team will have funds to stay competative.
So yes, we’d all love a downtown grid stadium, but it’s very unlikely to happen. If we get MLB it will almost certainly be as an anchor to a greater district. (Lenovo/DTSouth)
Nope. It is, for all intents and purposes, impossible to seize railroad land in the US as long as the railroad still wants to use it. (And building a bridge deck over the railroad is absurdly expensive, especially relative to land values in Raleigh.)
From what I remember, when the original plans for downtown south were released, there was intent to make downtown south actually part of downtown.
I also remember that pre-DTS development, they considered putting a stadium near the government offices off north Salisbury. MLS didn’t have much gov backing, but if MLB is being pushed a lot more on a state level, they may actually consider that option as well.
I’ll add that many stadiums have been built in that manner, where bears are poked. For smaller projects, HOAs can have a lot of power. For ones where the local government, state government, billionaires, and the general population are all aligned, the bear seems more like an ant. There have historically been a number of concerned neighbors who get completely steamrolled in situations like this.
That said, I’m in agreement that this lot poses a lot of problems. I don’t think it would be ideal. But, a highly motivated government, billionaire, and populous could make almost anything happen.