https://twitter.com/sgfcitizen/status/1620890263567859714

The arguably bigger news is that they also got the parking lot across the street.

That was nice to hear, but the city was in very real danger of losing the team if they didn't buy the stadium. If someone didn't buy the park and upgrade it, then the Cardinals were going to move the team.

Meh, not a huge fan of tax dollars going into stadium improvements that the billionaire owners should be paying for. Pretty overwhelmingly, studies show that stadiums are poor to negative investments which don't really add as much economic value as they're sold.

I'm a sports fan too, but IMO the billionaire owners should be the one footing the bill. Did the city council even open it for public discussion on whether to invest the money to buy and pay for the improvments?

I really wish they would have concerts here.

Maybe they will now that it’s owned by the city.

City: takes my income without consent

Also City: buys property that apparently is losing money

While you are right, I doubt the intent was to invest in it but more to keep the cardinals from leaving and in turn leaving an abandoned stadium for the city to deal with anyways.

Agree. Billionaires buy sports team because it's an expensive hobby that they can afford. A status symbol. They should be responsible for the stadium that comes with those sports teams as well. Not the public.

Downvoters: I pay my taxes and vote. However, if this property was making money, why would it be sold to the lowest bidder (the city)? Why should we socialize this baseball stadium that is apparently failing?

Change the name.

From the KY3 news article, “The lease agreement going through 2038 would ensure the 2012 Texas League Champion Springfield Cardinals remain in Springfield where they have played since the affiliate’s founding in 2005.”

Love that they are called the 2012 Texas League Champion Springfield Cardinals. Team hasn’t made it to the Championship in 11 years. Only two appearances in 18 years and one championship.

Real shame that the city is footing this huge bill for a very bad team. I will say I frequent games here. Drop the prices of tickets and beer and I’d be a little more on board but unfortunately prices will only increase after the huge payment.

Put the vote to the city and it would not pass.

Yes, Springfield's $12 million purchase of an existing minor league ballpark [$32 million build cost; ~$50 million adjusted for inflation] and parking lot is definitely comparable to MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR stadium projects in other cities with "median public contribution of $500 million per sports stadium." Good catch, r/springfieldMO.

I’m glad the city stepped into preserve this community asset. For those not in the know, the previous ownership group post JQH’s death had been neglecting this stadium(along with all other locally owned assets) and was in jeopardy of losing the team if something wasn’t worked out.

This is clearly a top 10 thing to do in Springfield anyway you look at it, so I’m glad the city stepped in to right the ship. The alternative would have been a huge loss for our city, regardless of whether you personally attend games. I’m not a big fan of tax dollars being spent loosely but with how intertwined this stadium and the Springfield Cardinals are with the community (field trips, non-profit fundraisers etc) this is much like a park (Jordan Valley Ice Park being a good comparison) or other community asset that the city had to unfortunately step in to preserve.

The economic impact of a minor league sports team is even less than that of a major league sports team. People aren't exactly flying out of state to catch a Springfield Cardinals game nor are things like sports bars and such being built around the team.

I don't mind having a baseball team in town; I like the Cardinals. I'm just not gung-ho about subsidizing billionaires with public tax dollars.

Based on what was said at the press conference, it sounded like that's almost certain to happen at some point in the future -- but probably not right away.

"One of the terms of the lease is that (changing the stadium's name) is possible in the future. The naming rights for the field would turn into capital projects to keep improving the field. If the name does change, we want to make sure the money goes toward improvements."

So they have 12 million to spend on this, but can’t do shit for the homeless?

Maybe they can house the homeless there

It's going to pay for itself in the long term, unlike throwing money down a black hole.

Doubt it. Minor league isn’t the same as major league. Bad investment if you actually do the research.

>Bad investment if you actually do the research.

You've already done it, so I won't waste the time. Post up the .pdf of that and the homeless remediation plan you've got cooking.

Nice try. Go do it yourself if you actually care.

It's such a weird system. The city pays for all the upkeep, while the team owners get a ton of money from consessions, advertising, est.

If the proceeds from the games were actually going back into the city, I might be a little more willing. But like you said, it's a bad investment. I'd be very surprised if the city is even able to break even. And then, if the owners even decide to move the team, taxpayers just spent a ton of money for nothing.

For $100 you can buy a Red Access ticket to get into every single home game. There’s like 70 home games a year. General admission tickets can be bought for like $7. The last couple years they’ve added special happy hour beer pricing before many of the games. They constantly have giveaways that are the same as you get in St Louis. You can’t ask for much better value than they’re offering.

I thought you already did the research? Isn't that how you are so certain?

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All you have to do is go read. I’m not gonna do that for you. Quit being a troll and go do some research. You ought to be doing it anyway since it’s your tax money being wasted.

Roy Blunt Stadium

How is that a good example?? This stadium was BUILT privately, and now it is the CITY buying it for much less than the cost to build it. SMH.

ETA:

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/35149258/deal-finalized-divide-rams-settlement-money-st-louis

AA Minor league baseball is about watching individual prospects and not focusing on whether the team is winning. Jordan Walker/Masyn Winn/Moises Gomez/Graceffo were the guys to watch last season. This year I'd look out for Tink Hence, Javier Baez, and Cooper Hjerpe. Others as well that I'm sure I'm overlooking.

I thought I knew what I was talking about. I thought wrong

Yep. Not only did STL get paid, the stadium is being used still.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/sports/2022-07-24/st-louis-will-host-one-of-the-teams-in-the-xfl-as-the-league-tries-again

I keep asking for modest upgrades to our skatepark like lights, shade, and benches, but I keep getting told there's no money.

not sure which night it is but one night per week they have happy hour pricing all game long.

It's still outside...

$12 million to get very little in return in terms of local business revenue.

There is already a metric shit ton of money being poured into the homeless situation in Springfield. We have like 12 non profits for every citizen. How's it working out?

Yeah but it’s not on someone private citizens property

So keep em outside as long as its not in your backyard, eh?

I meant a safe place for them to stay so the sheriff doesn’t run them off to squat in house.

According to what?

Professional team sports stadiums one of the few ways to spend tax money that is:

1- objectively useless

2- brings absolutely nothing to a city

3- does not create jobs or drive business

4- is a blatant hand out to the already wealthy

And yet somehow

5- you absolutely must do or your citizens will loathe you and vote you out of office

Somehow you made it worse

Here is more info and legal documents.

https://www.springfieldmo.gov/5799/Hammons-Field

The cardinals pay $650k per year with 4% annual increases. That’s $10 mil plus over the 15 year contract. So from that perspective…it’s largely met the cost of buying. Tons of reading time but perhaps someone can read through and find other important points.

Wish we had a park like Tulsa, The Gathering Place

Hammons is about to go to shit in the next 5 years

OMG yes. I drive there about every month to skate the skatepark there.

Yeah, for $12 million we could have a big free skatepark, a mountain bike park, an RC track, an RC airfield, pump tracks, air conditioning at the skatepark we do have like the tennis players get, and a zillion other quality of life things that would make Springfield a fun place to DO things, rather than a place to watch minor league baseball players do fun things. I have no problem spending this money on baseball except that it's coming at the expense of things I want.

You clearly don’t understand that minor league baseball is about player development, not winning games

This city council makes their decisions in the closed lunch meetings. They don’t give a f*ck about community member input. (e.g. Buc-ees)

The city basically ‘imminent domain-ed’ Springfield Skatepark. Tons of volunteer hours went into making it happen and then the city “took over.” I would imagine the skatepark would likely get upgrades IF a tax increase gets passed for parks improvements.

The city provided the land to begin with, not to mention the city has done upgrades paid for with tax monies to the park since taking over fully. I'd say the ROI on the ballpark would be greater if managed well.

I don't think parks should be managed with ROI as a high priority. Skaters are generally younger with less disposable income, and currently that means they have a facility without air conditioning, unlike every other indoor parks facility, and inadequate lighting, and nowhere to sit except folding chairs. I feel like parks should be for the benefit of the citizens, not as an income source.

Typical capitalism at its finest.

Dang, we were almost rid of it.

That's actually a pretty good deal for the city. Typically the pro sports team gets to keep all the naming rights money.

Plus they will get $250k per year from MSU playing there. So there's another few million in rent.

If they were smart the Park Board will use it for other functions other than baseball. One thing that always irritated me was the lack of use of the facilities. Come on, host some concerts, have some baseball tournyments, rent it out for weddings or something.

Socialized loses, Privatized gains. How it’s always worked

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1- Brings Entertainment 2- Brings something you would t otherwise have 3- Jobs are here that weren't 20 years ago and the restaurants and businesses around it would disagree 4- I'll agree with this one 5- Usually how it works

Lars Nootbaar Field

I think I need to clarify. I was not saying these things ABOUT PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, I was saying them about spending taxpayer money on stadiums is these things. I will elaborate:

1- It's useless in the sense that these teams are profitable enough to upgrade and improve or even build their own stadiums. The only reason taxpayers feel compelled to pay for these things is that teams threaten to leave and go to a town that will, if all towns just said "no, we wont" then the industry would pay for it themselves, or just play in less grandiose stadiums, which is a perfectly viable option.

2- Again, establishing a sports teams, fine, it's good for a town to have a home team, sure, but spending big tax bucks to convince them not to leave? Especially when they COULD afford to do these things themselves? Crap. It literally brings in nothing, just spends a big ole fat wad of cash to convince them not to go.

3- I submit to you that no business in the vicinity of the stadium will see any meaningful change to their business once this money is spent and the remodels are done. I submit it is very unlikely this spending will cause any new nearby business to open that otherwise would not have. I also submit that none of the businesses in the, say, mile radius of the Stadium, that currently exist and are successful, would not exist or would not have been successful if that stadium had stayed a fairly modest municipal stadium in perpetuity. Now of course I can't "prove" that, but I can point to the existence of several studies showing that after large multi-million dollar tax payer funded renovations of stadiums, local businesses see negligible to non-existent change to their business.

​

So again, just to be clear, I am not poo-pooing the idea of having a home town sports team. What I am suggesting is that the taxpayers being held sort of pseudo hostage by these teams for large expensive remodels which they can afford but obviously would rather us pay for, is crappy, and that spending has utterly no benefit to any of us, other than placating the blackmailer for the privilege of their continued company.