(11-29-2011 04:17 PM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  

(11-29-2011 09:19 AM)slappywhite Wrote:  for those of you who think its a perfect marraige on this one have no idea how badly the city has treated etsu/etsu baseball by "letting" them use cardinal. its been one sided the entire time with the city being at fault (or laissez faire)at every turn. etsu has payed more than most think to play there and did so at the mercy of the city. to let them on etsu's new field will cost them, and it should.

and to say cardinal park is the mortar holding up the keystone community is laughable...

If Cardinal Park isn't the mortar holding up Keystone, then nothing is.

What else does the place have going for it? Cars on blocks?

The only thing laughable is your arguement. ETSU never had to play at Cardinal Park, they could have fixed up Mooney Field a long time ago and played on campus.

Second, are you honestly saying that ETSU should deprive the community of the nicest possible ballpark they can build because of spite?

Let's go back to the AA thing. Now, again, to do that you're looking at essentially the Applalachian League going out of business- at least around here- and having to build a new ballpark.

Hey- we're building a new ballpark! We're building a new ballpark that originally was supposed to be something like what they have in Oklahoma City (just to choose another minor league town) where you can watch the game from a resturaunt, or have an apartment that overlooks the field.

To me, that sounds cosmopolitan. And who would want to buy a condo/ rent an apartment overlooking a substandard ballpark?

What I'm saying is that if we got out of the small town mindset and actually realized our market size is similar to other AA towns, and that, yes, a team of that ilk would love to move to such an area if the ballpark was nicer, what it would mean for the community.

It would literally put the community on the map. Imagine a AA team playing Knoxville every year- suddenly we're on an equal footing with Knoxville.

Forget about piddily things like softball teams getting ballparks and worry more about the community- like a new arena that could not only house ETSU hoops but an ECHL minor league hockey team as well- and now we have something OVER Knoxville.

Instead of the Tri-Cities being a place to go to the bathroom between Roanoke and Knoxville, it becomes a legitimately cosmopolitan area on a similar level to Knoxville and Roanoke.

Furthermore, such things would likely inspire ETSU to not be satisfied with the A-Sun and instead strive for real things, like moving to a larger conference and adding football.

Which is what we want.

As for $1 million being a lot of money for Johnson City- I don't doubt that. But Cardinal Park is a professional baseball park, and in the overall scheme of things, where Target Field was just built for $545 million, it's nothing.

Personally, I don't think the place needs any more seats. But you can't go broke underestimating the powers that be in this area when it comes to athletics, so who knows?