The Dash Downtown Ballpark

[twincity]

Hateration reporting!

[suburban george3]

What a weak and sorry job of reporting... yes, W-S stadium is now funded by public dollars and the cost is much higher than Greensboro's. I think pretty much everyone already knew that...

Just out of curiosity, how do the amenities stack up against each other?

[yadkinv]

This is an outstanding job of reporting the truth, and clearly indicates what everyone knows to be true absolutley that Greensboro is savvy about such things and W-S is well a city of bungalers. I'd say this illustrates exactly what is Triadism; specifically, Greensboro does it right so do everything in Greensboro, and W-S, well they don't do it right and they well just don't know how to play in the big leagues - poor country rubes.

[twincity]

All this lady did was spit out numbers...no details or info to back those numbers. NewBridge is larger but was expanded in its second year. First Horizon Park started off as a 5,500 fixed seat stadium just like Dash stadium. The reason for the cost difference is obvious.

[cityboi]

I can say it wasn't a fair comparison because the news only reported stadium size and boasted the fact that Greensboro's stadium was built with private dollars. I sense they were trying to make Winston look bad and make the city leaders over there look like a bunch of fools. When you actually compare the stadiums there are things about Greensboro's stadium thats better but there are also things about Winston's stadium thats better. The Dash stadium will have a restaurant for one and Winston has done a better job with a comprehensive plan that includes the stadium, an office building overlooking the field and residential. In Greensboro is was just the stadium with the hope of some developers coming up with plans next to the stadium. Winston stadium will have a more big league feel due to a larger upperdeck than Greensboro. Both stadiums are capable of expanding. I know that NewBridge can expand up to 10,000 seats but doing that would mean the team would be moving to AAA. Like I said before that wouldnt happen because Winston's team would be displaced. There will never be a AAA team in the Triad since both cities now have their own new stadiums. I am puzzled why neither city has pushed to move to AA though. Both cities are of size to support a AA team and both stadiums are AA standard. One could argue which stadium looks better architecturall because while both have brick they are different architectutral styles. Dash Stadium will have a Candem Yards feel. Greensboro's stadium has brick but it also has white board siding on the upper deck similar to ChurchHill Downs in Kentucky. One thing I do like about NewBridge is that its more a part of the urban fabric of downtown and much closer to the core of downtown. From the exterior, the Dash stadium looks bigger because of elevation drops and the stadium appears to be taller. Greensboro's stadium looks like a one story stadium close up because the upperdeck level is inset so far in and the far lower level is more below street level except where the ticket window is.

[winston's finest]

this is poor article with no true background information behind it. It doesn't include what happened to the actual owners and how the economy and bad timing caused them to have issues. If the economy hadn't tanked this stadium would have been finished by now....people tend to forget that and jump to the highly negative.

Anyways.....there are still many many failures in GBORO...like everywhere else.

[twincity]

^^So true. You can expect the same response over and over and over and over again from...

Ive wondered the same thing Cityboi.

[Beany]

It is hard to argue Greensboro got a much better deal but that story was one-sided. W-S will have a darn nice stadium which in some ways I think will look more impressive than the Grasshoppers stadium.

I think getting a AA team is not that easy because you would have to take a team from somewhere else. I don't think they are adding any new AA franchises. They are more expensive and as long as you are filling up the stadium there isn't much incentive to push for a more expensive team. Most of the people coming to the games aren't paying a lot of attention to the game anyway. The average fan wouldn't notice a difference between A and AA anyway.

The problem I have with the Grasshoppers is they are with the Marlins. The Marlins are not a great franchise and they keep their advanced league A team in Jupiter Florida. Winston-Salem has the advanced A league team of the White Sox. Greensboro use to be with the Yankees and I think that was a better organization.

[cityboi]

I think thats why its so depressing watching the news. New organizations are becoming more and more bias and opinionated. The news should report all the facts, not just facts that suit what the organizations want the viewers to believe. Cleary the Dash stadium will be one of the top minor league ballparks in the country and the citizens of Winston-Salem will have a great stadium to be proud of. Yes there were issues about the process but thats the case in almost every new ballpark thats being built. Its over and done with now. We have to move on and look forward. The stadium will provide family fun entertainment and will become a catalyst for future development. Im sure in the best case scenario, anyone would want a stadium built with private dollars but the fact is 98% of all the new stadiums are publicly financed. Thats just the way it is and a city shouldn't be looked down on because of it. People gripe because of public financing but after its built, the griping goes away and the very ones that complained will be attending the ball games. I've seen people that fought the Grasshopper's Stadium at the games.

Beany I also agree that the Yankees were a better organization for Greensboro team. But at the time you couldn't blame them for dumping Greensboro. War Memorial Stadium was not anadequate facilty for todays minor league baseball and its players, plus attendance was poor. If we had built the stadium a few years earlier we'd still be with the Yanks.

[twincity]

A new, more detailed site plan of the mixed-use village.

Im relieved to see the movie theater still in the plan since it has not been mentioned in recent articles. It appears that the parking decks will be hidden for the most part. Im still a little confused about the fate of those boarded up homes at Park Circle and Peters Creek. Will it be a surface lot, green space, or does Prim plan on saving them?

[sean]

^ that graphic is hilarious! it shows a hotel, a market, and a cinema...lol... oh stop, my stomach is hurting.

$40.7 million for a $22.6 million project and its still not complete.

we can now see a solution for the unemployment problem... just put those folks to work in public graft... business is booming!

have any of you fellow up'ers ever watched a gambling addict foolishly 'double down', because of the psychology of previous investment? the house always wins!

[Beany]

A village like that would rock.

[twincity]

Yesterday, the N.C. Local Government Commission approved the terms of the city's loan from First Tennessee Bank. With a unanimous vote by the city council to move foward, construction should restart by the end of this month.

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/au...ue-ballpark-mo/

[suburban george3]

The Journal stated that attendance at a game last week was 1,452. This is much higher than the 300-400 reported in earlier articles, so beer sales have helped. However, I think it's still 2-3K off normal attendance. At least it's going in the right direction... if they can keep it up, they should be ok. I do wonder how other revenue streams are doing.. ads, concessions, and merchandise sales. I would think they would be dramatically lower too...

I saw the attendance at the game yesterday was slightly over 1600.. this appears to still be on the low end of the league (even Kinston's w/e games approach 2K.) One of our weekday games this past week didn't even break 500. The Dash have a lot to do to ramp up attendance. However, attendance is up since the Dash got their alcohol license, but they haven't garnered much of an increase since.

[cityboi]

im not worried about current attendance too much. When the new stadium opens, it will dramatically go up. Thats pretty much been the case when new stadiums are built. It will be a much need boost for the Dash and will give more business owners a reason to open up more restaurants, bars and other entertainment options downtown. This ballpark will be a catalyst for things to come.

[cityboi]

more bias reporting.........

http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/08...its_new_stadium

[twincity]

And some people wonder why the Triad cant get along.

[beyonce245]

And some people wonder why the Triad cant get along.

I'm still rooting for the stadium.

[sean]

what exactly is biased about the above referenced article? seems about right to me.

i'll go out on a limb and make a prediction: 6 months, a year or maybe longer we'll be told that even more public money is needed to open 'our' stadium. i really hope i'm wrong!

[twincity]

The problem is in the delivery.

[beyonce245]

I probably would've voted for the additional funding if I had been on the city council. The project certainly needs to be finished.

I'm just wondering why no one is asking, or the why the city isn't answering, how the total for the stadium went up even more in this latest round of financing. I've read reports over the last several months about state and municipal projects coming in way under estimates, sometimes by as much as 20%, because of the slumping construction industry.

I suppose the original construction contracts for the stadium are still in place. But the cost of materials has also gone down tremendously. You would think that there could have been some cost savings somewhere. Maybe there are and I just haven't heard about them.

Nevertheless, I think the stadium will be a great addition to WS when it's finally completed.

[twincity]

This is whats left to do according to the Journal.

Final grading.

Water and sewer.

Landscaping and grass.

Fence and gates.

Parking lots and driveways.

Sidewalks, traffic control and intersection improvements.

Playground and main entrance area.

Playing field sod, drainage and irrigation system.

Scoreboard and LED signage.

Stadium seating and railings.

Interior finishes and railings.

Electrical and plumbing finish-outs.

Public address system.

Public art.

[suburban george3]

Unfortunately, the new ballpark will always have this stigma associated with it. But it can still be a successful and enjoyed venue. That article wasn't biased, but it really didn't go into much depth; almost a rehash of the WFMY piece. This whole fiasco has just given Greensboro's citizens, officials, and media something to use to beat over Winston-Salem's head.

As said eariler, so much for wondering why we don't get along....

... of course you can look at it this way, Greensboro is just super jealous of Winston-Salem and they are taking advantage of this...

[cityboi]

what exactly is biased about the above referenced article? seems about right to me.

i'll go out on a limb and make a prediction: 6 months, a year or maybe longer we'll be told that even more public money is needed to open 'our' stadium. i really hope i'm wrong!

yes I think there clearly were a lot of mistakes and what you are saying may be true. I just think the news media needs to stop the crap because I do think the motives for the way it was reported that were clear. They were reporting facts but I look at the motive. Everything was good as gravy when the News & Record and other Greensboro based media reported on Greensboro's ballpark. As a Greensboro resident, I hope nothing but the best for the Dash Stadium and Greensboro media should report more positive things about the stadium and what it will do for downtown.

[yadkinv]

If anything resembling this sort of reporting was done in W-S about a Greensboro project, there would be an anti-Triadism cry that would reverberate throughout the entire State. But, it's OK for it to be done in Greensboro- say what you will but Triadism means projects as long as Greensboro's name is first.