I have never read that Kane is interested in developing a baseball stadium. I assume he would listen if someone brought him a baseball proposal, but I think this type of arrangement would have to start on the franchise end. You need someone with extremely deep pockets, connections to people in MLB, and a desire to bring it to Raleigh in particular. Then you need a team willing to move or the league to announce an expansion.
I think the reasons MLS is even a possibility in Raleigh are that we have a potential owner who is willing to pursue it, a league that has implied they will expand beyond 30 teams, a city willing to consider public investment, and a developer who can assemble the land. All of these items have taken years to get to this point and it’s still uncertain even though we’re dealing with the “lesser” of the major leagues.
With baseball you have a league that seems to have a stable number teams, or the potential to attract a franchise that’s unhappy with their current situation. There’s no potential owner that I’m aware of. It’s unclear if a baseball stadium is suitable with Penmarc’s development proforma, and it’s likely that a MLB stadium would be more expensive and require greater public investment.
I think with Penmarc it’s probably soccer or bust.
Florida (will have) teams in Orlando and Miami, 230 miles apart.
Texas has teams in Dallas and Houston, 240 miles apart.
Ohio has Columbus and Cinci,100 miles apart.
NC with Charlotte and Raleigh (170 miles apart) would be consistent.
Plus the expansion adds
TX: Austin near Houston at 165 miles apart
CA: And Sacramento near San Jose, 120 miles apart.
Wondering what the populations were in Ohio vs here. Dayton-Cincy-Columbus is 5.1 million. Triangle-Triad-Charlotte is around 5.8 million and growing twice as fast. So yes, seems possible though unsure of liklihood.
No actually, in an article on WRALSportsFan he talks about this not affecting the city of Raleigh, so I don’t know who else could translate that for me but he appears to be that he doesn’t mind NC getting 2 teams.
I know folks will be like whatever Ralboi919 lol, but this is the deal folks, Malik is light in pockets compared to Tepper the MLS needs the money period, before he arrived Charlotte’s bid was dead in the water period, but at the same time there are very few people more connected to Soccer than Malik again here is the second part of the deal Malik has enough juice,pull,clout to get Raleigh a MLS Soccer Team but we have to have a strong Stadium plan in place period ! And just know we not talking about the NFL or MLB here it’s the MLS, Malik knows what he is doing and knows what Raleigh needs to do he is a well connected insider but at the same time a growing cash strapped MLS is not gonna turn down a Billionaire like Mr.Tepper, but the door is still open for Raleigh read between the lines lol.
We actually have the 4 wealthiest in N.C. living in Raleigh:
Goodnight- SAS = $9-$15Billion estimated
Sall- SAS = $3-$4Billion
Tim Sweeney- Epic Games= $7Billion
Temple Sloan- privately held Carquest (sold to Advance Auto for over $2Billion).
Yes. However, most of these guys, their wealth is tied to the value of the company shares they own (maybe not Tempe Slone as Carquest was sold off). David Tepper as a hedge fund manager has way more liquid assets as a hedge fund manager. I believe he set a record for one of the largest paychecks ever at $2.2B in one year. Even amongst billionaires, he’s in a different level in terms of how liquid his assets are versus someone like a SAS founder that the wealth is tied to the value of SAS.
That being said, any of these guys can probably get the financial leverage to pursue a MLS team if that’s on their list of things they want to do. And that’s really key. Tim Sweeney I believe has devoted a bunch of his wealth to buying up undeveloped forest land for conservation purposes.
Correct. Sweeney is buying up NC land to protect it from development and to prevent if from it becoming utility easements. He’s purchased tens of thousands of acres already.
I think that we are getting too wrapped up with this stadium when the more compelling story is Downtown South itself. With the “gateway” project getting its rezoning approved last week, Downtown South will be more connected to downtown proper than it would have been otherwise.
This was the conversation we were having a few months ago. People were saying that we HAD to give $300 million to the stadium project because DT South would not be built without it, and if we don’t get DT South then we lose out on TONS of tax revenue.
Fast forward, and what many of us on here argued is turning out to be true. Kane didn’t go through all the work of putting these parcels together and marketing it all, just to walk away from it. So the argument of having to fund the stadium to get the district turned out to be, for lack of a better term, a ploy (if what @Brian and Bonner is saying is true. )
It won’t’ be taken this way, but I hope this ends up being a lesson for future developers. Just be honest and transparent. Stop playing these word-twisting games. There was way too much vagueness in this stadium proposal from day one.
First, it was a stadium for MLS, then it wasn’t particularly for MLS, but for “the citizens of Raleigh who said they wanted a mixed-use stadium.” However, the majority of the citizens were equating the stadium proposal with landing MLS. Then it was “DT South doesn’t happen without a stadium.”
Why not just from the beginning lay out the exact plans with a contingency on getting MLS (and a scaled-down plan if we do not.). Just open, transparent and honestly gauging of public opinion after they are educated on the pros/cons without creating spin or haziness around the issue?
Again, I am for Raleigh using the tourism tax money to build an MLS stadium, should we get a franchise (we can put contingencies on that money to help us get in a concrete stadium plan), but I am just personally very put off by the way this whole thing was handled and am not surprised at all at the outcome.
They said it in the initial presser and media hits. Kane said the stadium was integral, it was the anchor, and the development would not happen without it. They were explicit in this going to far as to note that they did not purchase the properties and only had agreements in principle so they could walk away without a stadium.
