Braves/Wilder Perplexing Story
by Wolf
Wilder: Braves balking on downtown ballpark
Braves official ‘blown away’ by mayor’s talk
This story blows my mind. I don’t even know what’s happening- there seems to be utter confusion about the whole project and/or the RTD writer is terrible. This story should be important to anyone who cares about the city of Richmond. Whether you agree or disagree with plans, or love or hate baseball, this project will have a major impact on the city (positive in some areas in negative in others, no doubt). Having read the article, I am more confused than ever about what’s happening with this project, but I’m still willing to throw in my opinions and interpretations of the latest saga….
On a day the team and the city had planned to talk about a new ballpark at Fulton Gas Works — a meeting postponed because of a death in a city official’s family Wilder yesterday fired off a blast that the Braves’ owners had reneged on the deal…. “We feel that the team is pretty much turning its back away from the people of Richmond,” Wilder said. “They’ve been unresponsive, continue to be unresponsive and I think they ought to tell us why.”
Are we not hearing the whole story, or is Wilder stupid? You postpone a meeting and then call the other party unresponsive? Maybe if you had the meeting….
Wilder yesterday accused the Braves of balking at signing a long-promised agreement on the project and missing a March 3 deadline he had set.
Plant said the Braves had told the mayor, beginning in late December, and again in a March 1 letter, that they would not sign any agreement until they received answers to questions on several major issues, which include: road access to the site; what to do about a creek that runs through what would be the middle of the playing field; parking; the possible presence of buried toxic waste; and how the $45 million project would be financed.
Wilder, seriously, what responsible group is going to sign something committing to spend tens of millions of dollars with such major unknowns? Come on.
So, Wilder responds with…
Wilder said city officials have worked for four months, lining up a developer to help build the ballpark and developing a plan to handle increased traffic and parking needs. He detailed city proposals to relocate state Route 5 and install roundabouts to handle increased traffic. The plan calls for paving over the gas works itself to seal off any toxic material that might be in the soil.
1. I hope that moving a road and installing roundabouts isn’t the extent of the traffic solution the city has come up with. I like roundabouts for some things, but conversation: “we’re going to have thousands of vehicles converging on a point in a very short time period- how should I handle it?” “roundabouts.” Ummmm, No.
2. Haha. You don’t seal toxic waste into the ground by paving over it. First, you have to dig a giant hole for the building (see: VAPAF). Depending on what it is, removing toxic waste can be astronomically expensive (ie, deal-breaker by itself). It’s possible, but doubtful, that they would be allowed to leave all of it even out in parking areas (and shouldn’t they removing it, being so close to the river?). It’s unbelievable that nobody has tested the dirt at the site. Unbelievable.
3. Creek? Environmentalists are insane about creeks. While it could physically be removed pretty easily, people could make this a real pain. I mean, without the creek, how will all the toxic waste flow so rapidly into the river?!
I have to assume that more has been done that Wilder didn’t mention in the interview. I hope so at least. Moving on…
Wilder, meanwhile, said the city couldn’t wait forever for the Braves to decide on the ballpark before the easternmost reaches of the riverfront are developed. “Will we be looking for other teams to come? If necessary,” Wilder said. “Are we depending on the Braves to come to fulfill what needs to take place in Fulton Bottom? No. Will we welcome the Braves if they want to come? Yes. But there’s a limit to everything, and the limit here today is that we have said that we have done all that we know how to do.”
Hahahaha. I don’t really see Richmond having the upper hand here. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are a billion cities for the braves to move to and 1 team that has any interest in Richmond what-so-ever. Richmond is infinitely crappy at supporting sports. Some people argue the Braves are moderately supported I guess (questionable), but look at any other sport/team- pitiful.
Strategy change: If Richmond wants the Braves to stay here, we should be begging them, not threatening to look for other teams. Otherwise, let’s let them go and find some other awesome thing to replace them (river casinos!!!).
I went to a city council meeting where the original shockoe development plan was presented. Wilder was there. Specifics were discussed.
Then, a week later, I listened to Wilder give a live radio interview denying having heard any specifics about the Shockoe baseball stadium. Some of the specifics he listed having not heard were definitely presented in the meeting I went to. He said, in essence, the same thing he is saying now – that he hadn’t heard anything at all, which was clearly false.
In short, I’ve heard Wilder blatantly lie on the radio about what he had been told. This means that I don’t believe one word of what he’s saying in that article. If I were the Atlanta Braves, I’d move the RBraves out as soon as I got a new city lined up. And even if a new team would come here, which is unlikely, this fiasco isn’t going to convince them to stay. Plenty of other cities would love to have a minor league baseball team.
Wilder is on a power trip, plain and simple. The Fulton Gas Works site is absolutely horrible, and I would bet that nobody in Atlanta thinks the site has any potential at all. I would have loved to see the Braves play in the Bottom, but I could understand the problems many had with the site. Well all those problems are worse at Fulton Bottom, plus there are new ones (toxic waste!). When the Braves did their preliminary work in evaluating possible locations for a new stadium, they looked at about 15 sites around Richmond, including the Bottom, the Boulevard, Manchester, Mayo Island, Rocketts Landing, Ethyl Corp land, etc. For a variety of reasons, the Bottom was at the top of the list. Rocketts Landing was near the bottom of the list. Near the top of the complaint list about the Bottom site was traffic. So Wilder seeks to fix that problem by moving the stadium to a place where the only way you can get there is through the Bottom! Just stupid.
hold the boat. there “may be” buried toxic waste at the robot factory, underneath a frigging creek?? that runs into the river??? surrounded by residential areas? wtf? why is this not its own story?
what kind of robots were they making there anyways?
Yeah Wilder always seems to have an ultierior motive when he makes a big fuss about things, so you have to think there is something that us/media don’t know. Whatever it is, the whole thing is a mess.
I think there are two reasons I would like the RBraves to stay: 1) The added development they would have brought to the Bottom (probably not as much in Fulton Bottom) and 2) They have been in Richmond forever, so I would be sad to see them go.
Other than that, hey man spend the money elsewhere on sweeter development.
Actually, I think Atlanta should just close Richmond and move the baseball team out of the city — it would serve a huge blow to the ego of Richmonders since they refused to change for better.
Richmond is the town that has not changed since the war. Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Jacksonville, Birmingham, Nashville, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Tampa and Orlando are growing just nicely. What of Richmond? Much ado about nothing.
If it wont change its spots, let it die.
R-
WHICH WAR THE VIETNAM WAR?
anyways, anything that keeps richmond off any list that includes orlando and (godhelpme) tampa is a positive step, in my opinion. unless it’s a list of things that are unlike other things on the list.