So, what do you think of the WS baseball stadium fiasco? (buy, tax)

[arbyunc]

Epic fail?

I have to say I was a big fan of the Warthogs, and I hated that they saw the need to change the team name from Warthogs to... the Dash? Huh??? What a stupid name!

So from the start I had a bad taste in my mouth about this whole deal. Now we find that the stadium cost estimates were a wee bit low...from $22 million to over $40 million! They only missed by about 100%. Who's crunching these numbers anyway? I mean, how do you miss it that badly?

So now the city is pretty much stuck. Do nothing and end up with a deserted, half-finished ball park that would be next to impossible to sell, or pony up the additional money to make it happen.

I'm not so much opposed to a new park--I think the thought of a downtown stadium is exciting, and it should bring much renewal to the surrounding area. But I don't like the way this whole thing has been handled. It seems it's been shoved down our throats without much transparency about what's really going on. And I don't even live in the city limits, so it's not even my tax money I'm mad about...if I did live in the city, I'd probably be really angry!

Regardless, if and when the thing is finally completed, I think the team mgmt will have a lot of work to do to win back the fans.

[Elm&McGee]

Let's just focus on getting it done and stop all of the negative bickering. I have never seen so many negative people in one city.

[WFW&P]

That's right, lets all jump in and help so W-S can stop envying Grasshopper's stadium.

[arbyunc]

Sorry Elm, but you don't just bowl over the taxpayers to the tune of $20 million in cost overruns without expecting a lot of negativity. It just comes with the territory, especially when we've had so much economic bad news lately. When people are losing their jobs all around us, I think it's a legitimate question to ask why the city is basically being forced to bankroll a guy who's already worth millions.

The issue is not just about "getting it done" (although I do believe it has to be done), but it's about accountability, transparency, and good stewardship of public funds. We must understand how and why this fiasco happened in order to prevent such things in the future, otherwise we're bound to repeat it.

[Carolina Texan]

well said, arbyunc. You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger baseball fan than me, and i would LOVE to have a new stadium. But i didn't buy it at the outset that public money/lending was needed. And i don't buy it now that the ONLY way to salvage this is by even more city involvement and more taxpayer money at risk.

you're also right that the process and the transparency here has been abysmal.

p.s. don't forget that as soon as the city approved the original plans and ponied up the funds, Billy Prim decided he needed a giant water bottle in the outfield, promoting of course his other business venture.