Thanks to our man on ground in the Triad, Sam Hieb, I’m dubbing Winston-Salem’s new taxpayer-built minor league baseball stadium Woulda Coulda Shoulda Park. What was supposed to be a $22m. 5500-seat stadium with $12m. in city money has ballooned to a $48m. confusion with taxpayers providing $27m. of that.
Is anyone in Uptown Charlotte paying attention?
Over the summer there had been whispers that the projected cost of a 10,000 seat Uptown park for the Knights might slide down from the $60m. price point given the weak economic conditions. If Winston is any guide, no. A stadium half the size being built in the teeth of one of the great construction corrections in history is right at $50m. The prudent number for a new Knights stadium then should be $75m. — more or less exactly what the new AAA park wound up costing Gwinnett County outside of Atlanta.
Keep that in mind when baseball talk heats up again after the November elections.
