Triple A Baseball Coming to El Paso! (West, Howe: for sale, 2015)
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Wow! Some big plans, and some folks with $$$$ behind it. The crab in me wonders whether a downtown stadium would actually work. Trying to get to a game downtown in rush-hour traffic from East, West, or Northeast? Hmmmm....I don't know. Still I like to see big plans like this. The part I really don't get is why tear down City Hall to build a stadium. Couldn't they find a existing space without a large building sitting there. Or how about just refurbishing Cohen Stadium for AAA baseball. Or is this just a sly way to get a new City Hall built?
Last edited by Columbia Blue; 06-21-2012 at 10:31 PM..
A few months ago, I talked to someone who is involved with planning... He said that a new city hall was being talked about for some time now. This is wonderful news... I just hope the people of El Paso choose to vote yes for the quality of life bond in November, I really want to see an arena built too!!
Great news! What is really awesome is that it could be possible to have a team by 2014. Man I gotta name my future kids after these guys! A huge thanks needs to go out to the Foster and Hunt families, they are making El Paso proud.
Now I know this is far from a done deal, but having Paul Foster and Woody Hunt leading this push for a team here is really comforting. These guys know what they are doing and they have the cash to get us a team. I've also heard that this group: MountainStar Sports Group are possibly the group that are thinking about getting an MLS team here in a few years down the road and maybe a new MLS soccer stadium as well (not sure if thats true, just what I heard).
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Location: Glory Road - El Paso, Texas (R.O)
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As Shyminer mentioned, the Emperor aka City Manager has wanted to move City Hall for quite some time now. This just helps line the ducks up in a row. Also, many infrastructure projects will be completed, or at least be closer to completion, before opening day. Loop 375 will include downtown by then if all goes according to plan.
This is where we see what El Paso is really about. Triple A baseball costs a little more than Double A ball. Prices closer to what you pay at movie theaters. Four thousand a night isn't enough (which is more or less what we averaged during our Double A Diablos days). The average Triple A ball club averages 6,600 fans a night. I think that is realistic for El Paso. Then again, I thought we were going to have 30K+ at the fight last Saturday.
If El Paso supports this, then this will no doubt be the boom downtown has sorely needed.
After reading the articles a little better, I have a feeling that the triple A team from Tucson has already been bought or at least there is an agreement to buy the team and bring it here. If its not Tucson's team then its another club from another Triple A city.
The Times has this interesting tidbit in their article.
Quote:
When the stadium was taken off the bond list, city officials said funding for a proposed baseball stadium would come from other sources, including private-public partnerships, an increase to the hotel occupancy tax and other funds - and only until a team was secured.
I'm thinking that the team has been secured, now the only thing we will need is for the stadium to be approved. We will find out more info next Tuesday, but things are looking good for a future team here in El Paso.
Just read an article and saw the video report from KVIA and city rep Steve Ortega does indeed say that their is a tentative agreement already in place for a team to move here by possibly 2014. Only two things now stand in the way of a team moving here: A new stadium will need to be built, and the Triple-A organization (MLB) needs to approve El Paso as the home of the new triple-A team.
I strongly believe that Woody Hunt and Paul Foster have heir hearts in the right place as for bringing a badly needed triple AAA baseball team to El Paso. I am all for the revitalization of downtown El Paso and for bringing back the electric street cars to service downtown. I also support the Quality of Life bond issue for El Paso in November, these are opportunity's that don't come along ever so often so we must jump on the opportunity and support them. However one major factor that I feel that our city leaders are in such a rush and making a huge mistake, and that is to tear down city hall and the Insights Museum to build this new stadium. That location looks like a really tight squeeze for a ballpark, not to mention where are they going to get parking for the baseball goers. Have our city leaders explored other downtown locations? what about the intersection of Cotton and Paisano where there are some railroad yards that seem are ever hardly in used. At that location it would have easy access to Interstate 10 to the North and the Cesar Chavez Border Freeway to the South and Paisano to Central El Paso.
What happens if city leaders regardless, continue to insist that the current city hall location is the best area for a stadium, only to find out in a couple of years that is was a poor choice? We should be building new buildings downtown and not tearing them down instead, The Paisano/Cotton location is blighted downtown property owned by the railroad. That property has great potential and there could be plenty of parking, in fact there is enough room there to include an arena.
Since they are building the new railroad yards in Santa Teresa, the city should seriously look into this property and do some research to see what it would cost, it wouldn't hurt to Google Earth this location and use some imagination.
What ever the outcome is, I hope it all works out and that El Paso comes through with all these dreams to make our city a much better place for all of us,including the crabs, who needs them?
I strongly believe that Woody Hunt and Paul Foster have heir hearts in the right place as for bringing a badly needed triple AAA baseball team to El Paso. I am all for the revitalization of downtown El Paso and for bringing back the electric street cars to service downtown. I also support the Quality of Life bond issue for El Paso in November, these are opportunity's that don't come along ever so often so we must jump on the opportunity and support them. However one major factor that I feel that our city leaders are in such a rush and making a huge mistake, and that is to tear down city hall and the Insights Museum to build this new stadium. That location looks like a really tight squeeze for a ballpark, not to mention where are they going to get parking for the baseball goers. Have our city leaders explored other downtown locations? what about the intersection of Cotton and Paisano where there are some railroad yards that seem are ever hardly in used. At that location it would have easy access to Interstate 10 to the North and the Cesar Chavez Border Freeway to the South and Paisano to Central El Paso.
What happens if city leaders regardless, continue to insist that the current city hall location is the best area for a stadium, only to find out in a couple of years that is was a poor choice? We should be building new buildings downtown and not tearing them down instead, The Paisano/Cotton location is blighted downtown property owned by the railroad. That property has great potential and there could be plenty of parking, in fact there is enough room there to include an arena.
Since they are building the new railroad yards in Santa Teresa, the city should seriously look into this property and do some research to see what it would cost, it wouldn't hurt to Google Earth this location and use some imagination.
What ever the outcome is, I hope it all works out and that El Paso comes through with all these dreams to make our city a much better place for all of us,including the crabs, who needs them?
I think the current location they are looking at is pretty good to me. It's in downtown, easy to get to and there is plenty of parking spaces in the area. Downtown needs this boost, and many business owners will be jumping up and down if this deal comes to pass. The Triple-A teams play about 70 home games a year, so there will be lots of fans lined up to finally see Triple A ball played here for our city and they will be spending time and money in downtown, which is great for its revitalization.
One of the conditions for moving the team here is that a stadium needs to be built by spring 2014 or 2015. The city already owns the city hall property and can move everyone out and tear down the city hall building and build a stadium all within the next two years if it wants to. The Paisano Cotton location that you are talking about is not owned by the city and maybe the railroad doesn't want to even sell that land now. The city and the sports group are on a timeline to build this stadium soon, or we can lose out on getting a team this time around. Lets say that the city buys up the railroad property and pays millions for the land you mentioned, the deal can also be delayed by many reasons and then the city would have to clear and clean the land from the railroads. It would probably cost the city many more millions than just tearing down the current city hall (that needs many repairs) and building a stadium all within a couple of years.
The city hall is a prime location and its almost ready to go, other areas such as the Paisano Cotton area are not. There are 32 triple A teams in America and they rarely go on sale, so you have to jump at the chance when a team does have a for sale sign out there. Other cities were competing with El Paso to get the Tucson team and if we don't get it now, there will be others who will jump to grab them. I applaud the Fosters and Hunts for working for two years to get us a team, and hopefully their hard work will pay off real soon.
Status:
"Buy Your UTEP Football Season Tickets ASAP"
(set 19 days ago)
Location: Glory Road - El Paso, Texas (R.O)
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The City Manager wants to relocate City Hall. EPFD no longer has a true headquaters. The City Manager wants to move the EPFD headquaters downtown. I see the ducks being lined up.
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Wow! Some big plans, and some folks with $$$$ behind it. The crab in me wonders whether a downtown stadium would actually work. Trying to get to a game downtown in rush-hour traffic from East, West, or Northeast? Hmmmm....I don't know. Still I like to see big plans like this. The part I really don't get is why tear down City Hall to build a stadium. Couldn't they find a existing space without a large building sitting there. Or how about just refurbishing Cohen Stadium for AAA baseball. Or is this just a sly way to get a new City Hall built?
