Savannah council considers new stadium with SPLOST funding (section 8, sales)

[Airforceguy]

Savannah council considers new stadium with SPLOST funding

City of Savannah officials are considering building a new Sand Gnats baseball stadium downtown, preferably at the Savannah River Landing site, and would use $22 million in available SPLOST, or Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funding designated for an arena to help pay for it.

Savannah council considers new stadium with SPLOST funding | savannahnow.com

[WanderingImport]

We'll see how this goes. There have been talks about this for years and I would be a little sad knowing Savannah River Landing didn't end up as it's intended purpose. If there were any alternatives for the site though, this would be it.

[bellhead]

First of all I am against any user of sales tax for a private sports stadium based upon my time living in the greater Cincinnati area and the building of their two stadiums using sales tax dollars. When they were built the sales tax would be used to reduce the bond debt and lower property taxes. Guess what neither happened and the bond debt is higher today than 15 years ago when they where issued due to lower amount of tax revenue.

Now to the issue, there is a way to make this work and make several improvements to the downtown core at the same time.

Mixed use facility...
1.) Baseball stadium..
2.) Arena/ampi-theater seating at least 8k, 12k -14k would be better as we could draw bigger acts.
3.) A shopping mall complex with movie theaters and a cruise terminal... A good example of this is from my Cincinnati Days. Newport on the Levee which was a mixed use mall built on the banks of the Ohio River. That had an aquarium, movie theater, comedy club, shops, Barnes and Noble, and a dining.

Newport on the Levee

A baseball stadium alone will be white elephant good only for the team, and the council members eating at trough of the lobbyists which they already have a good taste of...

[Padgett2]

You only have to look at the empty seats in the present stadium to guess at the protential revenue from baseball.

I fret about the area. There is so much fill dirt covering muck. How do you put heavy buildings on this type of foundation? It must be expensive.

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by bellhead

First of all I am against any user of sales tax for a private sports stadium based upon my time living in the greater Cincinnati area and the building of their two stadiums using sales tax dollars. When they were built the sales tax would be used to reduce the bond debt and lower property taxes. Guess what neither happened and the bond debt is higher today than 15 years ago when they where issued due to lower amount of tax revenue.

Now to the issue, there is a way to make this work and make several improvements to the downtown core at the same time.

Mixed use facility...
1.) Baseball stadium..
2.) Arena/ampi-theater seating at least 8k, 12k -14k would be better as we could draw bigger acts.
3.) A shopping mall complex with movie theaters and a cruise terminal... A good example of this is from my Cincinnati Days. Newport on the Levee which was a mixed use mall built on the banks of the Ohio River. That had an aquarium, movie theater, comedy club, shops, Barnes and Noble, and a dining.

Newport on the Levee

A baseball stadium alone will be white elephant good only for the team, and the council members eating at trough of the lobbyists which they already have a good taste of...

If only the leaders could put that much thought into the development of Savannah. It would be a much nicer place.

[Padgett2]

Originally Posted by WanderingImport

If only the leaders could put that much thought into the development of Savannah. It would be a much nicer place.

That's the biggest problem. There are so many people here that think it's nice enough as it is.

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by Padgett2

That's the biggest problem. There are so many people here that think it's nice enough as it is.

Savannah is definitely a nice place (putting it mildly), but it has SO much potential to become that much nicer.

[bellhead]

An 12k ampitheater would be a natural here, the area is big enough and has a young enough population to draw concert acts.

[bellhead]

After looking at the map, there does appear to be enough land to do everything I suggested. What also needs to be in the mix is housing. Currently there is a public housing complex there that could be demolished and the current residents given section 8 vouchers in order to spread them through out the area. SCAD is always expanding it's dormitories and offices, the city should gift several acres of the land to use as mixed use dorms/offices across from the site on presidents and offer 15 year tax abatement's for townhouse/condo's and expand downtown's core out to there.

The other major thing that needs looked and would fit perfectly there is a tram system linking the east/west side down Bay Street bringing the area to stadium/cruise terminal.

This would drive downtown growth and hopefully lead to more people moving to the downtown area by bringing in a nice mix of shopping/entertainment/living.

[Padgett2]

Please explain:

Why we should want to increase downtown growth? Maybe more tourists? More restaurants, bars, etc. Do we want it to remain a historical destination? Or make it look more like Anytown, USA?

And why should we want to spur more people moving into the area? Are we going to invent more places to park, more places for children to play?

Sure, we could have all of it in one pile. But is this really the best use of the taxpayers money?..

What's wrong with developing the southside instead? Maybe the eastern part of the city?

What I am trying to say is that Savannah is much, much more than that tiny little strip on the River. As we try to make that part of it bigger and better, we are also making it less and less "Historic."