Investment group looking at bringing minor league baseball to Town Madison development (Birmingham: buying, movie theater)

[rossmoyne]

I moved here 16 years ago and the talk then was about putting up an indoor stadium in Madison. As everyone knows, that, thankfully, didn't materialize. Why do our leaders keep chasing these stupid ideas and wasting money on them. If you want to spend taxpayer money on something useful, get with HSV and go after that Toyota plant. That might actually generate a return on the tax dollars spent to bring them here.

[AU HSV]

Originally Posted by rossmoyne

I moved here 16 years ago and the talk then was about putting up an indoor stadium in Madison. As everyone knows, that, thankfully, didn't materialize. Why do our leaders keep chasing these stupid ideas and wasting money on them. If you want to spend taxpayer money on something useful, get with HSV and go after that Toyota plant. That might actually generate a return on the tax dollars spent to bring them here.

Tou have no idea what the city and region are doing to attract jobs. Something like the Toyota plant would be extremely top secret.

[TC2coolmom]

Originally Posted by Tennhioland

Investment group looking at bringing minor league baseball to Town Madison development | WHNT.com

Huge waste of space and even bigger waste of tax dollars. No one goes to baseball, even pro ball is loosing huge amounts of fans and money. Please don't do it and how about build a home for children or something like that.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by TC2coolmom

Huge waste of space and even bigger waste of tax dollars. No one goes to baseball, even pro ball is loosing huge amounts of fans and money. Please don't do it and how about build a home for children or something like that.

Well ... entertainment is important when trying to attract new industry/companies too. I'm not necessarily in favor of a minor league team in Madison (I had season tickets to the Stars when my son was small, and we enjoyed them immensely), but I won't say that having a team is necessarily a bad thing.

If you want to see extravagance, look what Atlanta just did ... a new baseball stadium, and a new indoor football stadium. Together, the cost was probably around $2B. And the facilities they had were perfectly adequate.

[MadisonMike]

A home for children? Really? You can do that anywhere that's got a couple of open acres. We're talking hundreds of acres of prime real estate here, along the biggest interstate Huntsville and Madison have. I suppose you would also like them to put in an Dollar General, another Wendy's, and...if we're lucky...a Mapco?


Come on, think big here. To grow as a city for the better, we've got to differentiate ourselves and make it appealing. To grow as a metro area, we've got to have something that is a destination.


By the way - people do "goes to baseball." The lowest average attendance in MLB is above 15,000 this year. The highest average attendance is more than the number of people living in Madison city. Would we pull 15K? Absolutely not. But look at MiLB attendance - in the Southern League alone. How about just the Barons, just 90 minutes from Town Madison. The Barons are pulling an average of just under 6,000/game. Nearly 400,000 have gone to see a Barons game this year in Birmingham!


Sorry for the rant, but that "no one goes to baseball" comment fired me up.

Originally Posted by TC2coolmom

Huge waste of space and even bigger waste of tax dollars. No one goes to baseball, even pro ball is loosing huge amounts of fans and money. Please don't do it and how about build a home for children or something like that.

[bmrisko]

Originally Posted by TC2coolmom

Huge waste of space and even bigger waste of tax dollars. No one goes to baseball, even pro ball is loosing huge amounts of fans and money. Please don't do it and how about build a home for children or something like that.

LOL...nothing says growing the local economy like a home for children.

[BEL2HSV]

I am all for Madison getting a team just not in a city funded stadium when they can't seem to build a road wider than two lanes. If Breland wants a baseball team out at Town Madison let him pay for it.

It is hard to take seriously that a Madison team will have the same draw as the Barons who are in a much much larger metro and in a downtown stadium. Looking at the Southern League attendance of the top 5 teams 4 have downtown ballparks. Outside of Biloxi, where the Stars just moved, the bottom 4 in attendance are all in suburban developments. Camden Yards started this stadium trend in the 90s and MiLB has used it to stay relevant in these smaller metros.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by MadisonMike

A home for children? Really? You can do that anywhere that's got a couple of open acres. We're talking hundreds of acres of prime real estate here, along the biggest interstate Huntsville and Madison have. I suppose you would also like them to put in an Dollar General, another Wendy's, and...if we're lucky...a Mapco?


Come on, think big here. To grow as a city for the better, we've got to differentiate ourselves and make it appealing. To grow as a metro area, we've got to have something that is a destination.


By the way - people do "goes to baseball." The lowest average attendance in MLB is above 15,000 this year. The highest average attendance is more than the number of people living in Madison city. Would we pull 15K? Absolutely not. But look at MiLB attendance - in the Southern League alone. How about just the Barons, just 90 minutes from Town Madison. The Barons are pulling an average of just under 6,000/game. Nearly 400,000 have gone to see a Barons game this year in Birmingham!


Sorry for the rant, but that "no one goes to baseball" comment fired me up.

Ive been on the destination bandwagon for a long time. Too many conflicting interests and governments.

[mcalumni01]

[QUOTE But look at MiLB attendance - in the Southern League alone. How about just the Barons, just 90 minutes from Town Madison. The Barons are pulling an average of just under 6,000/game. Nearly 400,000 have gone to see a Barons game this year in Birmingham![/quote]

Just broke the 2 million mark this year as well since opening 5 years ago...

[Dirt Grinder]

Just broke the 2 million mark this year as well since opening 5 years ago...

And the Stars left for Biloxi. Obviously, this area isn't interested in a baseball team.