Investment group looking at bringing minor league baseball to Town Madison development (Huntsville: construction, shopping center)

[Nlambert]

This area might be interested in a baseball team that was marketed appropriately. It wasn't very often that we heard much about the Stars. The stadium was tucked in behind a movie theater and for my first few years here I never even noticed it aside from a small sign at the road that led into the stadium. It wasn't until someone told me that we had a baseball team that we began to go.


Putting it out there so that people can see it and then marketing it appropriately, and bringing in some good talent would help push the stadium and make it a bigger hit.

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

...help push the stadium and make it a bigger hit.

Another stadium for high school football games and a minor league baseball team won't even come close to making this area a "destination". It's a bad idea seeking to become a poor implementation.

[Nlambert]

Originally Posted by Dirt Grinder

Another stadium for high school football games and a minor league baseball team won't even come close to making this area a "destination". It's a bad idea seeking to become a poor implementation.

I'm not discussing high school football stadiums. I'm discussing something a little larger than that which could potentially bring more people to Huntsville.


Attendance numbers for AA Southern League teams (of which the Stars were formerly a part of) in 2017 has been about 3,600 people per game. The attendance numbers have gone up since 2012 (the last year that I looked at stats for).


Considering that just in our local rec league there are over 30 baseball teams (and we're a small one) there are definitely baseball fans here. There are ten total leagues that are affiliated with the County rec league and numerous others that are not affiliated with the county (city leagues, independent leagues, etc). Then there are travel leagues.


If marketed properly it could work. I don't think it's a smart decision to immediately shoot down the idea just because it didn't work before. It didn't work before because it wasn't managed properly (constantly being sold off to others who wanted to move the team) and because the owners wanted to move the stadium it was not marketed. It had less to do with Huntsville not having baseball fans and more to do with wanting to reach a different fan base closer to the home of the owners.


Think about some of the former Stars players that went to the MLB. (just the ones off the top of my head)


Jose' Canseco
Jason Giambi
Tony Gwynn, Jr.
Mark McGwire
Terry Steinbach
Carlos Villanueva
Ryan Braun
Prince Fielder


Having that kind of rising talent in Madison County would be a good thing, don't you think?

[NoleFanHSV]

Having a minor league team won't make Huntsville a destination outside of the Huntsville metro area.

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

Having a minor league team won't make Huntsville a destination outside of the Huntsville metro area.

from June 8, 2017, WHNT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Last year was a great year for Huntsville and Madison county, especially when it comes to tourism.
“We’re real excited to learn our numbers for this year,” said Judy Ryals with the Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The bureau announced 2016 was a record year for Huntsville and Madison county when it comes to tourism. Those numbers came from the Alabama Tourism Department on the Travel Economic Impact 2016 report.
“We’re the third largest tourism county in the state behind Baldwin County, which is Gulf Shores/Orange beach and then Jefferson County, which has the major city…Birmingham,” said Ryals.
According to the CVB, in 2016 the economic impact of travel in Madison County alone was over one billion dollars.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

If marketed properly it could work. I don't think it's a smart decision to immediately shoot down the idea just because it didn't work before. It didn't work before because it wasn't managed properly (constantly being sold off to others who wanted to move the team) and because the owners wanted to move the stadium it was not marketed. It had less to do with Huntsville not having baseball fans and more to do with wanting to reach a different fan base closer to the home of the owners.

Yeah, but the investors that are talking about buying the team and moving it to Huntsville are planning on reselling the team in a few years. They are not planning on building a brand or looking long term.....they are planning on flipping it, sticking cash in their pockets and leaving someone else holding the bag.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by AU HSV

from June 8, 2017, WHNT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Last year was a great year for Huntsville and Madison county, especially when it comes to tourism.
“We’re real excited to learn our numbers for this year,” said Judy Ryals with the Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The bureau announced 2016 was a record year for Huntsville and Madison county when it comes to tourism. Those numbers came from the Alabama Tourism Department on the Travel Economic Impact 2016 report.
“We’re the third largest tourism county in the state behind Baldwin County, which is Gulf Shores/Orange beach and then Jefferson County, which has the major city…Birmingham,” said Ryals.
According to the CVB, in 2016 the economic impact of travel in Madison County alone was over one billion dollars.

Ok?

Also, how many of those dollars spent are tourist dollar vs. business dollars ?

Regardless, no one is selling me that Huntsville is a destination outside of the space and rocket center, which at one time was losing money.

When I have family in town, they want to go to Nashville or Chattanooga. I've shown them what Huntsville has to offer. It just ain't that much. A minor league team won't change that IMHO.

[NoleFanHSV]

And specifically why I mention business is that Travel expidentures are tracked by the U.S. travel association without a distinction between business and recreation/tourist dollars.

For example, Chattanooga has 1B and Nashville has 5B in travel dollars. How can Chattanooga only gave 1B when they have more attractions? One answer could lie in the high cost of airfare here: business traveling.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

And specifically why I mention business is that Travel expidentures are tracked by the U.S. travel association without a distinction between business and recreation/tourist dollars.

For example, Chattanooga has 1B and Nashville has 5B in travel dollars. How can Chattanooga only gave 1B when they have more attractions? One answer could lie in the high cost of airfare here: business traveling.

Chattanooga has more attractions than Nashville? I'd be surprised if that's the case, given all the country music stuff such as the Grand Ole Opry.

Chattanooga has more touristy type things than Huntsville, like the aquarium, and they're easier to get to on the Interstates, but I've never really considered it much of a destination. Maybe I'm wrong. But Huntsville and Chattanooga are almost exactly the same population, both in the city and county populations, so the expenditures being near the same isn't surprising. There probably aren't many tourists flying into either city, since we have extremely high fares and the Chattanooga airport isn't very busy (maybe because Atlanta is so close).

[rock90]

Been enjoying this thread and the various perspectives. A few random thoughts:

Stop by Joe Davis sometime and walk around the empty lot. Watch the tumbleweeds roll by. Take in the huge expanse of the parking lot. That's how a good chunk of Town Madison (can we call it Towne Madison instead? ) will look almost all the time. Home baseball game or The Expanse.

Now if there were a cool downtown-like integrated shopping/eating experience that kept some life flowing around the stadium even when there's no game, it might be okay. Do you really expect the developer to have that kind of vision, or more importantly, to make that kind of investment? Pretty risky and now doesn't seem the time to be taking risks in retail, with the sector fading.

(Side note: If you wanted to have a new ballpark, MidCity is arguably a better location. They already have a sports theme going with Top Golf and the climbing gym, and they'll have assorted stores and eateries around these. But a ballpark would be less profitable than what's been sketched in for that development.)

(Side side note: Top Golf would have been a great attraction for Town Madison!)

Baseball's demographics may be good, bad, or indifferent, but it's hard to argue that it's a good fit for the younger "check out this cool YouTube video" generation. If something doesn't change every two minutes, a lot of that group gets bored. Baseball's done a good job with TV, and it's way more entertaining than when I used to tune in while growing up. But I went to one Stars game and even I lost interest pretty quickly, and I do have some attention span. Just an anecdote, so basically worthless information.

Also, the families I know are all *so busy* with activities. It's non-stop after school with sports, clubs, church, and other activities. They're lucky to squeeze in a dinner out while on the run. I don't know a lot of them with three-hour blocks of time to go to a few baseball games each season. You need a lot of these to support a local club. That'd be the target demographic, right?

Finally, the developers need to show in their business plan how they will succeed when the Huntsville Stars did not. What will they do so very differently? Sure, it'll be on I-565 but Joe Davis had Memorial Parkway and that wasn't enough by itself. Or will they just leave it to the weeds once the tyranny of the numbers has its way?