It’s finally a bit of a slow news week, and I didn’t post anything yesterday, which usually means I would try to post something today, but all there is is this item about the owners of the Single-A Modesto Nuts looking to build a new stadium for — I’m sorry, how much money?
The proposal is based on Modesto and Stanislaus County providing the bulk of the funding for the stadium, which has a preliminary estimate of $85 million to $122 million. The proposal calls for private investment of $5 million to $10 million, and the city and county issuing bond debt to cover the balance.
That’s right, the Nuts owners — or technically “a group of Modesto business and civic leaders,” but surely they’re doing it on behalf of the Nuts owners, who in this case happen to be the owners of the Seattle Mariners — are looking to get as much as $117 million for a stadium for their lowest-rung minor-league affiliate, which would hold all of 5,000 fans (11,500 for concerts). That’s still slightly short of the reigning minor-league stadium subsidy record of $150 million for the Worcester Red Sox, but at least that’s a Triple-A stadium that holds 9,500 fans, even if it does look like a giant shipping container. Spending $117 million for a Single-A stadium is unheard of, or I guess was unheard of, until now. How is the Modesto business coalition trying to justify this crazy taxpayer expense?
Lynn Dickerson, the former Gallo Center for the Arts CEO and a member of the stadium project team, said it would not only provide the Nuts with a new venue but help with the revitalization of downtown and make Modesto a destination for residents from across the Central Valley and the Bay Area.
Yes, surely San Francisco residents will regularly make the hour and a half drive to watch the Mariners’ youngest minor-leaguers once they can sit in a new 5,000-seat stadium rather than the old 4,000-seat one. What else ya got?
Stadium proponents say it would help make Modesto a more attractive, desirable city and draw high-skilled, high-wage workers and spur the building of offices, housing and stores in downtown.
Okay, that’s about enough of that. There’s reportedly an economic impact study that the stadium proponents have given to the city and county, but the Modesto Bee doesn’t link to it or quote from it, either because they haven’t been allowed to see it or they can’t be bothered to read it, they don’t say which.
Scroll way down in the article, though, and you start to see where the Nuts owners and their friends are getting their chutzpah:
One reason plans were drawn up so quickly is Major League Baseball’s new facilities requirements for minor league teams. Under the new regulations, the Nuts will have to upgrade John Thurman Field, which opened in the mid-1950s, or submit to the MLB a plan for a new stadium by the start of the 2023 season.
The proponents of the new stadium say failure to do so could result in a fine or the revocation of team rights in Modesto and the end of minor league baseball here.
Yep, this is just one more bit of fallout from MLB’s takeover and downsizing of the minor leagues, which has allowed them to hold teams for ransom if local communities don’t cough up money for new stadiums. The difference is that nobody has asked for $117 million for one until now, but as Boyett Petroleum president Dave Boyett, a member of the stadium committee, told the Bee: “People said they’ve talked about a downtown stadium for years. I mean, I’ve talked about wanting to go to Mars, but somebody’s got to start somewhere.” Sure, next minor-league team up for a new stadium may as well ask for a rocket to Mars as part of the deal — after all, you can’t get if you don’t ask.