The Winston-Salem City Council unanimously approved the plan to bail out Dash owner Billy Prim’s downtown stadium and mixed-use development:
The basic terms of the original deal proposed last week remain the same: The council’s approval means that the city will take out a loan for $12.7 million to buy land for the stadium and help finish construction. Brookstown Development Partners would repay the loan over 25 years.
The city also will advance the company $2 million from a federal grant to pay for parking lots and roadwork. That grant has been approved, but must be amended to include the roads for the stadium.
And the city will finance $980,361 for Prim’s company to buy city-owned land around the stadium. The company would pay for the land over 5 years. Ownership of the stadium would transfer to the city in 25 years.
In order for his company to repay the city’s loan, Prim has said that the team needs to sell 350,000 tickets a season — a number that some people opposed to the new deal have said is impossible.
Regarding that last issue, WFDD’s Jeff Tiberri reports that Prim, Mayor Allen Joines and City Manager Lee Garrity are drawing comparisons to Greensboro’s New Bridge Bank Park, which has averaged 400,000 tickets sold per season since it opened.
