Nothing official yet, but it looks likely that Colorado Springs will move to a new downtown San Antonio stadium. The current AA San Antonio Missions would likely move to Amarillo, which has already voted to build a minor league stadium.
The Round Rock Express, located just north of Austin, currently have a player development contract with the Texas Rangers that expires after the 2018 season. Round Rock is owned by the Nolan Ryan family, and with both Nolan and his son Reid now working for the Astros it's widely expected for the Express to switch to become the Astros AAA team. Round Rock was originally an Astros team, but switched to the Rangers when Nolan became the team president. I had heard last week some speculation the Rangers were trying to move a AAA team to San Antonio although that is not mentioned in the above article.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
It's about time SA-town got a AAA team, it's mildly embarrassing they didn't have one in a market of 2 million and instead had a AA team, even if in a regional league.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
This is a smaller-scale version of the soak-a-city-for-a-new-stadium game that goes on (more expensively) at the big-league level.
Here it's a company that owns several minor league baseball teams and is going to play musical chairs with their franchises to get two new ballparks at taxpayer expense.
San Antonio will give the owner a new ballpark for their AAA team, Amarillo will give the same owner a new ballpark for their AA team, and they'll move their A team from Montana to Colorado Springs into the ballpark the team already owns there.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
But minor league baseball stadiums are always in demand and unlike major league stadiums, don't cost the municiaplity an arm, leg and genetalia, granted the relative cost may make the most impact if the city is small enough.
AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
(04-04-2016 02:46 AM)_C2_ Wrote: But minor league baseball stadiums are always in demand and unlike major league stadiums, don't cost the municiaplity an arm, leg and genetalia, granted the relative cost may make the most impact if the city is small enough.
Economic studies show that new stadia do not significantly increase a local economy and in many cases do harm. For a benefit to occur, it requires patrons to increase the amount they spend on entertainment, when what usually happens is the amount spent stays the same but they shift it from one place to another.
For an example of a failed/failing minor league stadium deal, see the City of Adelanto (CA) and the High Desert Mavericks. City is losing money hand over fist and is attempting to evict the team.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
Yeah, a city building a minor league stadium for a team owner is "better" than building a major league stadium for a team owner only in the sense that it's a poor use of a smaller amount of money instead of a poor use of a larger amount of money.
It's like if I go to an NFL game, or an amusement park, and I buy an $8 hot dog instead of a $15 cheeseburger. The $8 hot dog isn't a "good" deal at all; the only positive is that I'm wasting less money than I would if I bought the $15 cheeseburger.
Quote:Carstensen, who was commissioned by the Hartford city council to study the effects of a ballpark, acknowledges that the ballpark by itself is a money loser. His analysis, Economic Impacts on Hartford of Developing Downtown North, shows how the stadium will generate new development and more than pay for itself—but just barely, under the best of circumstances.
“When you’ve got all the pieces in place, then they come out ahead,” he says. “Not by a lot. I mean, this is not some kind of a big win. But the question was: How do you protect the city from the point of view of being able to cover the cost of the stadium over the 20-year time horizon to cover the cost of the bonds?”
Several national studies cast doubt on Carstensen’s analysis. Sports economists Brad Humphreys and Dennis Coates found that the presence of a professional sports team rarely boosts the local economy, and often ends up as a burden or a boondoggle. Similar conclusions have been echoed by studies at the Brookings Institution, Stanford University, and others.
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2016 07:20 PM by Brookes Owl.)
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
In a nutshell, please stop funding stadiums publicly except through rental car taxes and hotel rooms. If some owner wants to risk taking a bath by building a palace somewhere, let him but let's not drag down everyone else. And have a plan for the stadiums once they're no longer serviceable, even if that means making them a public park/museum. There's no reason every arena can't be turned into a church/religious facility, concert hall, graduation venue or events center after they're done being used for sports. Granted, land is more vaulable some places than others, especially Downtown but that's the exception to the rule.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
Really, for urban revitalization, you need multiple venues in a small area to get people back into an area. You also need to evict long time residents--err, I mean gentrify certain areas and have good police protection as well as businesses come back in. A baseball stadium, one or more concert hall/hockey rink/basketball arena, convention center, museum and possibly a football stadium can help revitalize areas of smaller cities.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
(04-04-2016 09:27 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote: Economic studies show that new stadia do not significantly increase a local economy and in many cases do harm. For a benefit to occur, it requires patrons to increase the amount they spend on entertainment, when what usually happens is the amount spent stays the same but they shift it from one place to another.
For an example of a failed/failing minor league stadium deal, see the City of Adelanto (CA) and the High Desert Mavericks. City is losing money hand over fist and is attempting to evict the team.
The city of Adelanto is losing in court, and the franchise owner is holding onto his $1/year stadium lease....
Quote:On Monday, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge granted the team's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the city from interfering with its use of the stadium while the dispute is resolved. The judge also granted its request to force the city into arbitration.
Quote:The city built the stadium in 1991, during better times, for $6.5 million. In 2010, a new owner, Main Street California, bought the team and in 2012 renegotiated the lease.
The city "was desperate to keep the team from moving to another city," team lawyers wrote in court filings.
City officials have estimated that the fair rental value of the stadium is $1,200 to $3,500 a game, based on what others in the 10-team California League pay.
They also say the city since 2012 has paid about $2 million in obligations related to the agreement. Team officials say they've had to spend large amounts on improvements the city was responsible for.
RE: AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox may be moving to San Antonio.
(04-10-2016 12:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:
(04-04-2016 09:27 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote: Economic studies show that new stadia do not significantly increase a local economy and in many cases do harm. For a benefit to occur, it requires patrons to increase the amount they spend on entertainment, when what usually happens is the amount spent stays the same but they shift it from one place to another.
For an example of a failed/failing minor league stadium deal, see the City of Adelanto (CA) and the High Desert Mavericks. City is losing money hand over fist and is attempting to evict the team.
The city of Adelanto is losing in court, and the franchise owner is holding onto his $1/year stadium lease....
Quote:On Monday, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge granted the team's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the city from interfering with its use of the stadium while the dispute is resolved. The judge also granted its request to force the city into arbitration.
Quote:The city built the stadium in 1991, during better times, for $6.5 million. In 2010, a new owner, Main Street California, bought the team and in 2012 renegotiated the lease.
The city "was desperate to keep the team from moving to another city," team lawyers wrote in court filings.
City officials have estimated that the fair rental value of the stadium is $1,200 to $3,500 a game, based on what others in the 10-team California League pay.
They also say the city since 2012 has paid about $2 million in obligations related to the agreement. Team officials say they've had to spend large amounts on improvements the city was responsible for.
Yep! Too bad for the city that poor judgment and ignorance of rudimentary financial principles are not good enough reasons to void a contract. Think anybody's going to hold them accountable? Not gonna hold my breath...