Eric Frederick of NC Assembly Magazine did a piece on Raleigh’s baseball past, present and future.
Lots of DTRaleigh heads included in this one, including @nipper.dwight !
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Yeah Dwight!! Big time!!
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tepper tied up?
Tepper Sports unveils plans for 4,400-seat music venue at Bank of America Stadium
Story Highlights
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Tepper Sports plans 4,400-seat indoor music venue at Bank of America Stadium.
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Construction begins 2027, opens 2030, funded entirely by Tepper Sports.
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Venue will host 80-100 events annually, including pregame hospitality.
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With Charlotte tied up financially, and Portland a literal burning dumpster fire of violence the past say 10 years, I think it’s safe to count both those cities out of any MLB expansion that Raleigh could be considering Raleigh. That Leaves SLC in the West and likely Raleigh and Nashville in the East. I wonder if MLB would consider Raleigh and Nashville and not a geographically Western team at all, or have Nashville represent and play in the West if they need balance in the league like that. Heck look at the brackets for Men’s NCAA basketball - teams that are definitely not geographically from the region they get placed in for March Madness. Or do a 4-team expansion to include SLC, with Portland added (including bullet proof tactical gear and mace for season pass holders).
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The triangle and North Carolina are both larger markets than Nashville and Tennessee. We need to be pitching in those terms.
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Mr Tepper is satisfied with his MLS and NFL team and I have never once heard him mention MLB. I think this MLB expansion race is between Salt Lake City and Nashville or Raleigh. But Nashville has spent its money on other things and I know it is the “IT” city right now but no ownership group and market saturation with NFL NHL and MLS all with their own stadiums/arenas. Their sales taxes are already SKY high. I just don’t see it there at all. It is time for Raleigh to Rise Up and take this prize when it is put out there.
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Loup20. Get this done.
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Portland is fine, and not a competitor for Raleigh MLB
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Well, Portland has their own issues, actually.
They are about to need massive renovations to the stadium (or a brand new one) for the Trailblazers, which Dundon will likely start asking for now that he owns them.
That will deplete a good deal of their public money that’s set aside for sports, and honestly, their is not a big vocal majority pushing for more sports funding in the city. It’s quite the opposite.
Also, while the narrative is that they have ‘the funding’ for an MLB Stadium, what they really have is a tax being collected on players and staff (both home and incoming) to fund bonds. Now, this tax is seemingly being capped at $800M…but do the math. It’s going to take them 30 years to collect that much money off of this tax….and the stadium would have to be built before any of that tax revenue even exists.
So where are they getting the money to break ground and build the stadium?
There is the media narrative around expansion contenders and then there is the nuance of each situation.
Portland doesn’t have the money, nor the political will to pull this off IMO. The western team is most likely going to be Salt Lake City (they have real money in place).
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You can’t believe everything you hear on cable news. The violent crime rate in Portland is lower than in Charlotte, Fayetteville, or Nashville (and way lower than Nashville). And besides, Portland and all other Pacific or Mountain time zone cities are pretty much immaterial to Raleigh’s chances of getting an MLB team, since the clearly stated intention is to have new teams in the west and the (south)east.
So please enjoy this moment of Zen from my April 2022 trip to Portland:
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I was in Portland last Fall. The reports on it are WAY overblown in my opinion. I thought that it was a lovely city.
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Portland arguably has the worst open air drug use and mental illness in the nation, maybe with the exception of Albuquerque. It comes from a progressive delusion that people can seek help whenever they want to, when they obviously can’t without forced intervention. While these issues may be concentrated to a few parts of the city, allowing it at all is disgraceful and affects outside perception (i.e. potential tourists).
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I too, have surveilled the open air drug use habits in every major US city.
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The worst area for open drug use in the U.S. may indeed be the Kensington area of Philly. Anyway, I digress…
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Back in the day people had to go yell this kinds of stuff at their step kids, who would appropriately roll their eyes and then say “ok Carl” and pretend to do homework or whatever. Now you can just unload it on anyone no matter how irrelevant.
Maybe Leo can set up a “regurgitated right-wing fever dreams” topic that we can just shovel all of this drek into so us normies can distract ourselves from our day jobs in peace
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Are you saying people are getting off-topic???
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I noticed on WRAL that Gregory Poole is relocating, which has been a long time coming. Their site, and the state property next door would be an interesting location for a stadium. 50 acres adjacent to the RR, just up the street from the BRT on Western, between 40, Wade and 440.
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Nice to see that area (hopefully) start transitioning away from industrial use. If it gets developed, it will probably end up being student apartments. I cannot see that as a possible stadium location due to traffic and event logistics, as we will see over the next 10 days.
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Maybe so, but if an MLB team is still playing during the State Fair and start of Hockey season it would mean they had a very successful year.
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