No, I don’t think they’re operating in the blind, it just gives me anxiety because we don’t know when the expansion will happen I hope it isn’t a long process.
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I would love MLB to come to Raleigh and a stadium to be downtown Raleigh as 1st choice. It’s a shame there’s so much land tied up in Montlawn cemetery between downtown and downtown south area, or it could be walkable from downtown to a stadium located right there.
One thing to note if a stadium ever replaced the fairgrounds, is there is aready an Amtrak train stop right at the fairgrounds (operated seasonally when the fair is running). Would be great to have passenger rail to the stadium to reduce car traffic…And realistically, existing Amtrak is the only type of rail this area is going to have for the next 10-15 years, so might as well make the best of it
Also it’d be easier to find a replacement fair site since there’s far less infrastructure needed to host the fair than to host MLB.
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I would think moving a massive prison (that is also right on an existing rail line, walkable from downtown and NC State, and across the street from the city’s future premiere destination for kids/families/etc.) would seem like something worth pursuing.
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Unpopular opinion:
30 and 40 story zoning should only be allowed within the 440 & 40 loop.
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So not even in North Hills? Seems constricting.
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Will be interesting to see what breaks ground first. DTS or this Arena district.
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So, we can’t seem to put our venues downtown, so we’ll build a downtown around the venues?
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would be great to not have a prison there on Western Blvd, but it’s a lot cheaper and more practical to replace some flea market booths and some bleachers at a drag strip than to replace an 1,100 inmate capacity prison comprising cells, healthcare, utilities, etc. I just dont think Central Prison is going anywhere in the next 40 years. Of course if a private gazillionaire wants to donate to make it happen, they’re free to step up LOL.
if they somehow build MLB stadium at Fairgrounds, Dorton Arena would stay put and build the stadium nearby, because it’s on the national registry of historic places. Good rail and good interstate access nearby. Lots of cars need to park at MLB, making central prison land even more expensive to redevelop since you’d need MASSIVE parking garages in addition to the stadium itself. But you’re right, the train tracks are right there, but the roads would be overwhelmed on game days, and
Also I heard if he loses to Josh Stein, Mark Robinson is in the running for a job maintaining the website associated with MLB for Raleigh (IYKYK, haha), based on his experiences posting online LOL. He loves his online posting don’t he? Yes would have to assume Josh Stein would carry on for Cooper in terms of promoting Raleigh as location for MLB. Fingers crossed.
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I’d put money on Arena district getting started MUCH sooner, if DTS ever breaks ground at all…
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Team name will be “The Carolina Black Nazis”
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And that’s probably enough politics for this thread
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The last thing we need is a signature tower in the middle of nowhere and miles away from downtown just because the “land was cheaper to build on.”
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I think the Farmers Market would be the perfect piece of land for an MLB stadium. If the state/city could use a small fraction of the land at Centennial and Dix you’d have plenty of room for parking. You have easy access to 40 and DTR is right there. Seems like finding a spot to relocate the Farmers Market would be simple. Even when the Farmers Market is busy they have way more parking than they need.
Curious where you’re seeing this excessive parking for the farmers market? Last time I was there, multiple cars were circling the lots and vehicles parked on curbs and landscaping. Google Maps corroborates (every spot full):
You did mention Centennial, if you are talking about the undeveloped property further up Centennial drive along Dix (does NCSU own this?), I could see a decent argument for a stadium/development there. I think they proposed this property for the Amazon HQ2 debacle, and I could see a stadium facing downtown with a battery type development around it. It’s pretty elevated and would have guaranteed views of the city with Dix park between the stadium and downtown.
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I can assure you from personal knowledge and experience that even the new additional parking the Farmer’s Market has added is still not enough on weekends.
Not to mention it’s the NORTH CAROLINA STATE Farmers market. It’s not getting moved.
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Just wait till Logan’s relocates to the old Garden Center space at the end of the year…
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Try moving the Farmers Market. We would have a worse a mess than the Red Hat relocation we just went through. I would suggest Plan B.
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Move the prison out of the city altogether and provide jobs in the rural part of the state where they are needed. Move the farmers’ market to the old prison site. Since the farmers’ market is something that’s active every day, I’d rather see that connected to the core of the city than a ball park. Put the ball park on the current farmers’ market site and activate the west side of Caraleigh into a sports oriented pre-post game destination.
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The state prison parcel (40.78) is less than half of the current farmers market parcel (85.62), in terms of acreage. Not sure that works out.
There’s also a state owned prison there… I doubt there’s much state government support to pay for building a new facility and transferring everyone, just so Raleigh can have something nice.
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