Wilmington, N.C. Getting Serious About Building A Minor League Stadium For The Braves
by gondeee on Feb 3, 2012 8:19 AM EST
in Braves Minor League News
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PrintTalking Chop was the first Braves site to bring you the news that the organization was looking to move one of its minor league teams to Wilmington, North Carolina. Bobby Cox and other Braves executives have had meetings with Wilmington City Counsel Members about constructing a new stadium for a Braves minor league affiliate. Now it appears the Wilmington City Counsel is about to set the wheels in motion to negotiate with the Braves. From the Lumina News:
Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and city council held a press conference Tuesday, Jan. 31 to announce that council will move into serious talks about locating a minor league baseball stadium in Wilmington.
The council will vote in next Tuesday’s regular meeting to approve a memorandum with the understanding that the city of Wilmington, Mandalay Entertainment and the Atlanta Braves Professional Baseball Club will work on finding an agreement for bringing a baseball stadium and team to the city during the next six months. [...]
Mandalay Entertainment and the Atlanta Braves want the stadium to be operational by 2014, Saffo said; hence the urgency to begin discussions.
Mandalay Entertainment via its subsidiary, Mandalay Sports Entertainment, has an ownership stake and/or consults with six current minor league teams, from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees to the highly successful Dayton Dragons, who have sold out a record 815 consecutive games. They also recently began consulting with a seventh team, the Winston-Salem Dash. I imagine that their role in this venture would be as a partner/consultant to the Braves in a new Class-A Advanced franchise in Wilmington.
The Braves agreement with the Lynchburg Hillcats, the Atlanta organization's current Class-A Advanced affiliate, will expire at the end of the 2014 season, so the urgency the article speaks about is surely meant to imply that the Braves would like a new stadium in place for the 2015 season, when they would presumably move their Class-A Advanced team from Lynchburg to Wilmington. At the same time the Braves would likely switch from having an independently owned Class-A Advanced team to one that is owned by the parent Major League organization, which is the case with all other Braves minor league teams.
It is now clear that the Braves are determined to bring all of their minor league teams under their ownership and control, leaving no independently owned teams within the organizational structure. The Wilmington Braves would be the final piece of that puzzle.
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What are the advantages of having the team control all the affiliates? Is it about control and money? Making sure the affiliates are all well-run? Or are there any baseball advantages?
"He knows where he's throwing. If he didn't, there'd be dead bodies strewn all over Idaho." - Washington Senators scout on Walter Johnson
Control, some money and identity saturation. But mostly control, since if I’m not mistaken, by being owned, there’s no need for a series of 2 or 4 year developmental contracts that all other minor league teams make with organizations, and what the Braves still do with teams like the Lynchburg Hillcats, so there’s stability to be gained there.
But I won’t lie, it would be sad for me to see the Braves without at least one affiliate that’s some goofy name like the Mudcats, Zephyrs, Biscuits, Owlz, Nuts, Cougars or MuckDogs. I really liked the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, and I’m cool with the Lynchburg Hillcats. I don’t need anymore navy and red hats.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
It’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison as hockey is not baseball, but it’s a little easier to find NHL teams that don’t own their affiliates than in MLB. When the Thrashers were here they did not own their AHL (equivalent to AAA baseball) affiliate and that ended up being a disaster. Their affiliate looked at the Thrashers as some kind of entitlement where it was the Thrashers’ job to provide players for them (you would be shocked at how much money the Thrashers spent against the NHL salary cap to pay the salaries of AHL players) and in return they did not have any obligation to play younger players over veterans. The Thrashers got fewer young players out of their AHL affiliates than any other team in the league because the coaches worked for the AHL owners and the coaches would just play the vets most of the time to try to win as much as possible.
All I can say to Wilmington is that they need to see what Gwinnett did and do the exact opposite. I live in Gwinnett County and we are stuck with an expensive baseball stadium that few want (attendance is very poor) and an absolutely insane agreement with the Braves that basically makes it impossible for the county to do anything but lose money. When the Braves first started negotiations with Gwinnett over moving the team here, they asked for the moon. Gwinnett gave in on everything they asked for. There was no negotiation. The Braves got everything they wanted. I’m sure the Braves’ people left the negotiations laughing and saying “Can you believe those rubes gave us EVERYTHING we asked for? Ha ha ha!”. If the voters had approved this I would feel a little better about it. It would still be a mistake, but it was all done in secret by our elected officials and by the time we even heard about it, the deal was almost completed.
There was a story
a couple of years ago that detailed how minor league franchises rarely actually add any real economic impact to the communities they enter, especially if that community foots the bill for the stadium. I’ll try to find it again (I think I even posted it here). It is worth the read.
"He knows where he's throwing. If he didn't, there'd be dead bodies strewn all over Idaho." - Washington Senators scout on Walter Johnson
Here it is:
http://www.talkingchop.com/2011/9/9/2414391/braves-quote-for-the-day-the-gwinnett-stadium-snafu
You would think cities like Wilmington would finally start paying attention. This only works out if the taxpayers dont pay for the stadium.
"He knows where he's throwing. If he didn't, there'd be dead bodies strewn all over Idaho." - Washington Senators scout on Walter Johnson
I’m surprised Greensboro isn’t in the running- they have a good AA-quality stadium, but only a low-A ball club.
have you ever been to Greensboro?
that’s why.
by JoelGuzman'sScout on Feb 3, 2012 9:49 AM EST up reply actions
what are you trying to say?
Greensboro would be a great place for a team other than the Grasshoppers
Chopmaster: my link is my dad who has watched the braves since I don’t know. he’s 56.
That stadium isn’t AA quality. It’s very nice, I’m a big fan, but it’s far too small to be considered AA. It’s exactly what it was made for Low A.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/Four-C-B-Wilkins/dp/1449578454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257720610&sr=1-1
www.dropoutproductions.com
I live in Wilmington
and am all for it. The general consensus from people I talk to is that while they are for the idea many don’t support paying any taxes for it. Obviously something like this can’t happen without tax dollars. The main thing I bring up to people when talking about it is that the real plus to something like this over other job creating ventures such as factories opening is that it brings many jobs that “regular” folks can get, in other words don’t need years of school or particular skill sets. And that is exactly what this area needs. I hope Wilmington can get it done.
Go Braves, Canes, Tarheels and Panthers. That is all.
I live here too
and I would fully support paying taxes to be able to watch the Braves organization develop players in my backyard. We’ve been seriously lacking in good sports opportunities for years and I cannot help but think of all the possibilities bringing the franchise here will create…so pumped!
Hopefully it can also bring some Braves fans out of the woodwork around here too. I’m tired of trying to watch a Braves game, while being surrounded by Red Sox and Yankees fans all the time. Not to mention there is no “Braves bar” in Wilmington, but I digress.
We’ve been discussing this a little bit on the Off Topic thread.
Being in NC, I would love to have a Braves affiliate in our state.
Greensboro have the “Grasshoppers” (stupid name) and Winston-Salem have the “Dash” (which I believe is a White Sox affiliate) who are both enjoying pretty new stadiums and good support. Having the Braves, even if it’s 4 hrs from me, would be great.
~ "Life is hard, God is good and heaven is real."
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