Jump to content

Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward


dubone

Recommended Posts

Great image, thanks for putting that together.

I don't think this configuration would ever fly since the setting sun would be in the batter's eyes (and half of the fans) due to the South/westward orientation of the park.

I think you guys are forgetting something equally as important, and that would be the fact that it would not be expandable and baseballs at this angle would fly into 277 whenever a homerun or foul ball was hit. What would solve this problems would be a 277 cap :-)

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites


I'm glad to see this discussion getting some traction!

-Fenway Park hits directly onto Lansdown Street, but by the angle of the Green Monster and the rooftops on the far side of Lansdown, balls can/do bounce into I-90 (The Mass Pike). The signature net above the Green Monster is an easy fix of that.

-Minneapolis Twin's new Target Field is actually built abutting I-394 where part of the site cantilevers over the highway. So that's not impossible...

-If you're talking about borrowing an inch by cantilevering over the highway, why not borrow a foot so you can rotate the park to face Uptown?

-The "porch" plaza (aka the receiving side of homeruns, would actually complement the secondary NASCAR plaza (the one with the fountain on Stonewall).

-Imagine how cool it would be too be on the LYNX and look down from the Stonewall Station INTO a ballpark (much better than looking at the roof of Club Ice).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

-If you're talking about borrowing an inch by cantilevering over the highway, why not borrow a foot so you can rotate the park to face Uptown?

-The "porch" plaza (aka the receiving side of homeruns, would actually complement the secondary NASCAR plaza (the one with the fountain on Stonewall).

-Imagine how cool it would be too be on the LYNX and look down from the Stonewall Station INTO a ballpark (much better than looking at the roof of Club Ice).

I love these three points!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if anyone else saw Friday's CBJ article, but they pretty much spell out the current situation. In short - doesn't look like the Knights will meet the terms of their lease agreement for the Third Ward space though in this current economy and with no potential counter-bids for the land the County make extend the option.

Mecklenburg County shifts landscape for Knights ballpark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is funny that the county is getting sensitive to the non-progress of the Knights when they themselves are moving slower than a snail on their park next door.

I suspect it will be like the city and the Encore development. They have no other prospects, so why not just keep granting extensions to their only partner until the economy improves. But like the city, it is good to see they are at least staying on top of it, so they can go back to the drawing board if the other party does pull out.

I was only slightly above neutral in support for the ballpark, but it seems perfectly reasonable to just continue to hold for a couple years until things shake out. That said, I won't be heartbroken if the county plays hard to get and ultimately the Knights say no. I think we all know that in the long run, while baseball has many positives, private development of these blocks is far superior, and there are other places the Knights could go.

Given how hard the Knights worked to secure this land lease, it seems particularly ironic that they are dragging their feet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was at the Knights game tonight (and unless they collapsed in the 9th we won!) and was looking around the stadium. I got to thinking that if we really want to be a regional powerhouse we might do better to promote our regional ties and keep the stadium (revised, that is) in Fort Mills. I think the cost of the new stadium in Uptown would be better spent towards a new commuter rail line to Fort Mill with a stop at the Knights as well as Carowinds. The cost of it could also be financed with a one dollar transit corridor tax that would be added to all game and amusement park game tickets.

To me that would boost attendance at the stadium (as well as Carowinds) and retain the regional connection.

All that said, The Knights need either a new stadium or some significant upgrades to teh current stadium particularly in regards to the display board and concessions (we had to wait 10 minutes for a hot dog 15 minutes before the game even started). On a positive note, they are building a three level deck on the far left of the stadium that takes up some (half) of the grassy picnic lawn. That is all supposed to be an extension of the new "Old Mecklenburg Brewery Beer Garden" which at the moment is nothing but an edge of the concourse. If done well, it could be a real draw for the stadium.

Edited by Urbanity
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I'm guessing this is probably as good as any place to put this... It appears our friend Jerry Reese is at it again. He's now threatening legal action against the city if they don't inspect and clean up the Virginia Paper Company building. As you probably know, this building sits on land in Third Ward that's leased to the Knights for their on again, off again stadium plans. I'd much rather see this building rehabilitated into something useful (Farmer's Market anyone?) than anything else.

Attorney threatens legal action over Third Ward building

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the renderings I've seen, I believe the Virginia Paper Co building was to be preserved (you can see it behind left-center field):

charlotte.jpg

Now, what Reese's motives are is anyone's guess.

That would be an oversight by whoever did the rendering. Not a single official rendering or siteplan included the preservation of the structure sadly. I could be wrong, its been a while since i saw a site plan. Reese is SUCH a Jerk BTW!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

VERY interesting developments in the Knights uptown ballpark saga... Apparently the Knights put up some "Coming Soon" signs at the site of the stadium: http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/nc-news/Charlotte-Knights-Close-to-Getting-Their-Uptown-Castle-120318904.html

May be just some kind of political ploy, but interesting never-the-less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

VERY interesting developments in the Knights uptown ballpark saga... Apparently the Knights put up some "Coming Soon" signs at the site of the stadium: http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/nc-news/Charlotte-Knights-Close-to-Getting-Their-Uptown-Castle-120318904.html

May be just some kind of political ploy, but interesting never-the-less.

I noticed the new "Coming Soon" signs over the wknd. They have caused a bit of a stir amongst people that live in the area. I had numerous people ask me about them this week. Hopefully something is about to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The Charlotte Knights are going to ask for an extension to start construction of their uptown ballpark in September 2012, with completion to open in time for the 2014 season. A decision by Mecklenburg county is expected to be made regarding the extension sometime this summer. So it sounds like it's do or die time now.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2011/05/knights-seek-2012-deadline.html

Edited by dbull75
Link to comment
Share on other sites

^Everyone here pretty much thinks Reese is a crack smoker. I'd love to see MLB here, but Charlotte can't support it. Maybe in 15-20 years.

I certainly think Reese is a headache. But he has a valid point - why build it twice? Charlotte is notorious for building one facility only to replace it with another 10-20 years later (see: convention center). But Reese gave no credence to the notion that Charlotte may never be interested in MLB unless it's residents can start appreciating the sport and following the league by proxy of the AAA team.

So lets say the Knights found money to make an expandable AAA stadium that could be converted to MLB in 20 years. Would that have negated Reese's argument? Even if it did; Charlotte's precedent for state-of-the-art facilities would mean a 20 year old renovation/conversion wouldn't work anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Reese in that I think its time for Charlotte to get an MLB team. I just don't really know that there is any legal justification for stopping a private team using money that did not come from public coffers to build a stadium on a sight they choose. If it were public money, he would have justification to be a thorn in the side of the city.

What I don't understand is people's insistence that Charlotte could not support an MLB team. It seems as if that thinking arises from two arguments, that the population base is too small and that the corporate presence in Charlotte is not large enough to support a team. I have a hard time buying either argument. The population in the metro region is about 2.4 million which puts it in the same league as Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Kansas City and Pittsburgh all of which have MLB teams.* Furthermore, there are four other metro areas with parts lying within easy driving distance of Charlotte...The Triad, Unifour, Upstate, and Columbia. If you add the people from those metros that could easily make it to Charlotte for a game, the population base from which an MLB team could draw is closer to the 3-3.5 million range.

I have an even harder time buying the idea that Charlotte's corporate presence is too small. Charlotte has 10 Fortune 500 companies, 4 more fortune 1000 companies, and 2 more, Coke Consolidated and Lance-Snyders, which will likely join the Fortune 1000 list in the next few years. We also have major operations/HQs for Wells Fargo, BB&T, 5/3, US Bank, Ally Financial, TIAA CREF, LPL Financial, Husqvarna, Electrolux, US Airways, Continental Tire, Shaw Group, Siemens, Compass Group USA, Delhaize, Freightliner, Time Warner, NASCAR, Bojangles etc. When it comes to corporate presence, Charlotte is a heavyweight considering it's population, however, a corporate sponsor does not necessarily have to have a major presence in the teams' hometown. Take the Checkers for instance...One of their sponsors is American Airlines which has no hub or focus city presence anywhere in the Carolinas.

If you look at MLB league attendance, you will realize that many teams survive on an average attendance of 25000 or less and multpile teams average less than 20000. The Bobcats draw 15000-16000 per game, and that is during Winter Sports season when people are also going to football and hockey games. A baseball team would have virtually an entire season to itself with no competiition from other local teams. The time has come for the city of Charlotte to "step up to the plate" and begin to look at how it can attract an MLB team. In fact, a report last year listed the city as number 2 on a top ten list of cities that need the MLB.

*Note: I use CSA numbers when describing a metro area for comparative purposes because I think it is more indicative of an area's true size.

Edited by cltbwimob
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look at the numbers, I believe Charlotte could support a major league baseball team today. We saw this happen before in the late 1980s when Charlotte was awarded an NBA team. People thought the franchise would fail and that Charlotte was too small for the NBA. The skeptics of the day were proven to be wrong when the Hornets led the league for many years in attendance. After more than 20 years Charlotte is twice as big with some of the nation's top fortune 500 companies. I believe Charlotte can support MLB. My guess is that when the time comes, they will just tear down this uptown AAA stadium and build a new Major League Stadium. They'd better hurry up because available land in the center-city big enough for stadiums is becoming scarce.

Instead of tearing down the AAA stadium if Charlotte gets a MLB team, I would convert it to an amphitheater or something. If the foot print of the land the AAA stadium will sit on is large enough, the new major league stadium could be built in its place. Minor league Baseball can return to For Mill until the big league stadium is built

Edited by cityboi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, but one thing you guys really need to think about and that hasn't been mentioned is something called Total Personal Income (TPI). Out of the four major sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL), baseball has the highest TPI required for a metro area to support a team. Baseball is actually double what's needed for basketball, football or hockey. I'd have to dig up some references but MLB is something to the tune of $80+ billion. The other sports are under $40 billion. Considering Charlotte already has 2 teams (in addition to 3 Nascar races and a PGA tournament), it would be the equivalent of having to support another Panthers and Bobcats team. Something I highly doubt Charlotte could do, at least not for a while... I'd rather have AAA baseball where you consistently put 10,000+ fans in the seats in a stadium that's full, than an MLB team that looks like the Tampa Bay Rays on a consistent basis. As some of others have pointed out, yes Charlotte does have a great corporate base which many metros of similar size do not by comparison, but that's only part of the equation.

EDIT: fixed typos

Edited by dbull75
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When the Twins were talking about relocating the pundits said Charlotte was 10 years away from being able to support an MLB Team. Then when the Expos were moving the pundits said Charlotte was 10 years away from being able to support an MLB Team. It's been about 20 years since the Twins were talking about their move...but somehow Charlotte is still 10+ years away from being able to support a team? That's some crazy math.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.