Loudon County Ballpark Update
What seemed like a chimera months ago, continues to gather steam as the talk of a new ballpark in Loudoun County has progressed to the "Name The Team" phase (Dulles Destroyers, if you're wondering). I've seen this before in Danbury, CT and Plymouth, MA, but what makes me wonder now is that there appears to be something of a race this time.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that there is no way that two ballparks are going to be built in the same county at the same time. So it appears to be a race to see who can break ground first. While I don't have a dog in the fight per se, my preference is that somebody "wins" else everybody loses.
While I'd like to think that this might put the necessary pressure on Prince William County to hold onto the Potomac Nationals, I wouldn't put much faith in the Board of Supervisors (need some copper wire? drop a penny between two of them). Would it be great if they can successfully lure the P-Nats? Of course it would. But so would a new stadium on the same spot.
On the very last home game of the regular season, I got a chance to talk to Art Silber and he said there are some plans to rebuild onto the Pfitz. Could he have been just snowing us? Absolutely. Team owners are politicians at heart, and they have to be. But rent there is cheap and it's hell of a lot easier to renovate than to secure a new parcel of land. And it's been done successfully before, albeit in better times - but not that much better; Massachusetts was in a recession then just as Virginia (and everywhere else) is in one now.
But as I've said before and I'll say again, if the PNats leave the Pfitz, nothing will take its place.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that there is no way that two ballparks are going to be built in the same county at the same time. So it appears to be a race to see who can break ground first. While I don't have a dog in the fight per se, my preference is that somebody "wins" else everybody loses.
While I'd like to think that this might put the necessary pressure on Prince William County to hold onto the Potomac Nationals, I wouldn't put much faith in the Board of Supervisors (need some copper wire? drop a penny between two of them). Would it be great if they can successfully lure the P-Nats? Of course it would. But so would a new stadium on the same spot.
On the very last home game of the regular season, I got a chance to talk to Art Silber and he said there are some plans to rebuild onto the Pfitz. Could he have been just snowing us? Absolutely. Team owners are politicians at heart, and they have to be. But rent there is cheap and it's hell of a lot easier to renovate than to secure a new parcel of land. And it's been done successfully before, albeit in better times - but not that much better; Massachusetts was in a recession then just as Virginia (and everywhere else) is in one now.
But as I've said before and I'll say again, if the PNats leave the Pfitz, nothing will take its place.
posted by Wooden U. Lykteneau at
11:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home