The Atlanta Braves organization stayed true to form as it announced the Mississippi Braves will be leaving Pearl:
Pearl Mayor Jake Windham fired back with his own press release:
What a shocker. This is what the Braves do. Bloomberg News reported in 2016:Sometime in 2003, when he was the mayor of Pearl, Miss., Jimmy Foster got a visit from a man he’d never met. The stranger, Tim Bennett, came to City Hall, an old brick schoolhouse on Pearl’s church-lined main street. “He just showed up in my office that day,” says Foster, “and started talking about baseball.” Specifically, Bennett wanted to know if Pearl might be interested in building a stadium for a minor league team.
A ballpark, it turned out, was just the kind of project Foster was looking for. Now 62, with gray hair and a potbelly, Foster, who spent 19 years as a policeman in Pearl before becoming mayor, was desperate to help his hometown shed its reputation as a poor neighbor of Jackson. “There just wasn’t a lot of commercial or retail in town,” he says. “And there wasn’t a lot of money.” The sewers, the streets—it all needed attention. “Having a baseball team in Pearl? That was a pipe dream.”....
(Tim) Bennett caught wind that the Atlanta Braves’ Double-A team in Greenville, S.C., was coming to the end of a 20-year lease and potentially in the market for a new home. He saw an opening. In December 2003, with negotiations inching along in Greenville, he persuaded the Braves to let him pitch them on Pearl, only a 50-minute flight from Atlanta and with a mayor eager to make a deal. The Braves liked what they heard....
Over the last 15 years, the Braves have extracted nearly half a billion in public funds for four new homes, each bigger and more expensive than the last. The crown jewel, backed by $392 million in public funding, is a $722 million, 41,500-seat stadium for the major league club set to open next year in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta. Before Cobb, the Braves built three minor league parks, working their way up the ladder from Single A to Triple A. In every case, they switched cities, pitting their new host against the old during negotiations. They showered attention on local officials unaccustomed to dealing with a big-league franchise and, in the end, left most of the cost on the public ledger....
Not long after Bennett first visited Pearl’s City Hall, Foster brought his baseball dreams to the city’s bond attorney and financial adviser. They told him a standalone stadium wouldn’t pay for itself, no matter how you crunched the numbers. Foster was undeterred. He’d been chatting with Bass Pro Shops, the hunting and outdoor retailer, about opening a store in town. So he went to Bass with the idea of building next door to a new stadium. Bass Pro was interested. Early in 2004, Foster and Bennett worked with Plant, the Braves executive, to outline a plan to bring the team and a Bass Pro Shop to Pearl, with the city issuing bonds to pay for both....
Under Pearl’s stadium agreement, which Foster closed in a marathon phone session with Bennett and Plant just before the announcement, the city would raise $78 million through a series of bonds, with $28 million set aside to pay for the ballpark...
Pearl planned to pay back bondholders through more than a half-dozen revenue streams, including a $1 surcharge on every game ticket and half of the sales tax from the Bass Pro Shop. (Bass didn’t respond to requests for comment.) The city also planned to collect $3 or $4 per car for parking. “That didn’t go over too well,” says Foster. Fans screamed at the parking lot attendants and jumped the fences. So Pearl swapped out the parking money for a new sales tax on a shopping and restaurant district near the ballpark.
Altogether, the taxes and fees were supposed to be more than enough to pay the debt back. But just in case, Pearl pledged to cover as much as $950,000 annually from other sources if money didn’t come in as planned. It hasn’t. In 2014, the most recent year on record, the city paid $911,748, more than 5 percent of its general fund spending for the year, to cover shortfalls. The year before, it paid $967,944. Rogers says he isn’t sure why Pearl paid more than it pledged..... Read the rest of the article. There is much more to read.
53 comments:
It's more like the ignorant who scalp themselves. This is just Corporate America doing what it does with public welfare schemes for corporations.
Bring back the Jackson Bandits!!!!
Rankin County Republicans. The epitome of private profit, public expense. GubMint Greens Salads served monthly at the lunch hosted by a convicted tax dodger. Ummmm mmmmm good.
They love Swamp Money, state money, local money, all from the taxpayer, while pretending they are "self made men."
Now, with 400 Million dollar lawsuits and an empty ballpark, they propose cutting all state income tax AND want more Federal money. What for? To build IN a literal swamp, with taxpayer subsidized flood insurance for the houses being built in a floodplain.
RINO Roger, and Mackerel Guess presiding, at the behest of the self proclaimed Rankin County Mafia. Heh heh. We done screwed our peeps again.
If I were the city leaders, my real disappointment would be reserved for the former city leaders who saddled them with paying for a stadium that was predicated on ridiculous financial assumptions. A really great example of people making huge financial decisions who really aren’t equipped to make financial decisions beyond those of a typical household.
Why are you goobs (including The Fish) feigning surprise? This is business as usual in this type of industry and many others.
It will have been a decent project for all parties for twenty years.
"Build it and they will come. Twenty years later they will leave". The nabobs can always blame it on Jackson.
See 2 stories down. No one wants to have liability here with carjackers running loose and no jail that will keep them.
Taxpayers on hook for how much?
If I remember correctly Bill Yates owns the stadium, the land and the building that Bass Pro occupies.
This is no different than the state retirement plan. Just give the 13th check and don’t worry about it. The city board like the retirement board make decisions that are not based on conservative principles of being very cautious.
If he cheated on her, he'll cheat on you too.
And there's this: "In 2014, the most recent year on record . . . "
This became inevitable when the MLB reduced the size of the minors leagues a few years ago. The MLB created a supply shortage for cities to bid on. I can understand why a team would not want to sign a new long term lease on a 20 year old stadium. The city / state should have probably worked on a facilities upgrade and upgraded marketing several years prior to now if they wanted to keep the team.
I will miss the team.
Mississippi has great baseball fans. Ole miss and MSU are top 5 in baseball attendance and USM is in the top 10. I could see Pearl being able to attach a new team in the future. The park is still great.
What will happen to the stadium in a few years when it starts falling apart due to neglect?
That whole development was sold to the City of Pearl on a lie. Pearl’s leaders ate it up, along with the chamber of commerce. They were tax free until basically no one went there any longer and now it’s fixing to be a huge eyesore, not unlike the rest of Pearl. What little stores are left will eventually leave until something comes along and repurposes all of those buildings because they get a screaming deal. Everyone saw the writing on the wall before the deal was inked. The real winners are the Yates and Roger’s families. Good thing Jake has his new ticket income, that is until he is told to stop via the court system.
Money isn’t appreciated in Mississippi. I’m surprised we even have paved roads and indoor plumbing.
5:50: Surprised? I warned y'all about it waaaay back in 2016.
It could be worse for Pearl taxpayers. They could be stuck paying the bill for a red ink gulping Convention Center placed smack dab in the middle of the per capita murder capital of these United States.
Every worse case scenario for the Convention Center that Jacksonians were told would never happened ... actually did.
And just like that, the little Brandon Amphitheatre just became obsolete.
Quoting 6:37 PM: "This is no different than the state retirement plan."
You're right! Other than there being no similarity, there's no difference. Here's your sign.
I think I went to two games in 20 years. Too expensive and too far and boring as hell.
It was great while it lasted!!! Did you guys think the team would be there forever? Pearl never was and never will be a destination. The leaders - as well as most everyone else- at the time thought it was a good deal. I don't recall people picketing outside city hall against the deal. Let it go. Move on.
11:46, explain how the Brandon Ampitheater has anything to do with the Braves Stadium?
Standard Operating Procedure for the Braves organization. Glad they were here for 20 years. There was zero chance in hades they were going to stay longer. Look at all their other farm clubs. Look at the lack of investment into the product. Just going through the motions the last 10 years.
Now that JSU plays football over at the hospital, this could become the JSU baseball field. Gratis, of course.
And I bet now, that we know they're walking, it'll be a banner year for attendance. At least I won't be driving over there anymore.
Jacksonians can thank former Mayor Harvey Johnson for his inaction.
Don't discount Pearl's current leaders. Those folks really love their city and are fighting tooth and nail to preserve what they have and look to the future.
Jake Windham's a good fellow and means well. The stadium is a nice facility in a good area. They'll figure something out.
what @7:29 said. Life goes on.
My God! You mean Pearl, the wonderful city of lights is being kicked to the curb as if it's no better than...gulp....Jackson?
You know it's got to be Jackson's fault.
@9:20
You're spot on, Jake Windham will put in the work to get that facility used to it's full potential.
If it was truly a self-contained 20-year deal with eyes wide open, then there's no foul. I think it's been a great venue and we even held company events in the suites. Moving forward, if a new home team can't be found how about hosting NCAA (MSU, UM, USM) baseball games there periodically?
Give me the One Lake Dreamers as a team!
If the local governments are feeling undue burdens from this, perhaps the question should be asked whether they left themselves contractually exposed? And should we be surprised if a bad contract was put forth by a politician trying to serve his/her own interests? A good contract is one that serves the mutual interests of both parties, but sometimes (or maybe even often) people sign contracts that they should not.
Shrinking market for baseball.
Quoting 12:13 There is a similarity, city and state officials that think things will work even though people tell them it won't break even on the costs and revenue. Same thing on the retirement, they figured on over a 7 1/2% return for many years till a few years ago instead of using a modest conservative 4.5% average and now look where they are only 60% funded.
I blame Kevin Costner for putting the idea in the American psyche than you can just build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere and people will show up. At least Springfield's monorail had some sort of utility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM
What's the square footage of a baseball diamond?
What's the required square footage for safe operation of a typical Ferris wheel?
Does the gun shop over there have a barrel-bending machine?
Does the city of Pearl own a calliope?
My guess is if you follow minor league baseball this story repeats its self over and over.
The same thing happened again in the fore mentioned Greenville, SC. The original team was the team was the "Spinners" (Dodgers). The name was a playoff to the textile workers in all the local mills. Back then Textile League baseball was big, but dying out as the mill owners no longer wanted the cost to support teams or the fields on mill property.
Up next the Greenville Bombers (Mets) ripped from the Columbia Bombers (Mets) in 1977. Games were played in new park Greenville Field. Then they left Greenville. But returned in 2004 (The Drive) (Red Sox) in honor of BMW being built there and Michelin plants and their NA HQ in a brand new state of the art ballpark called Flour Field paid for with bonds and taxes.
The same thing played out in Columbia too, as it does everywhere. They too have a new state of the art ballpark built with bonds and taxes The Fireflies, yes its real (Kansas City Royals).
This is about money, the owners of the minor league franchises, the MLB owners always get paid while the citizen taxpayers loose.
The out of service stadium in Shreveport is infested with an endangered species of bats. They can’t tear it down because of endangered species act.
We could move some barn swallows in and let them take over. If not, find a gopher tortiose or two.
What if Nissan...
Any chance of bringing in a farm league team for the Savannah Bannanas?
USM could use it since all of their facilities are trash without TANF money.
get a summer prospect league going. there’s one in new albany.
better than an unused eyesore
All of these experts and not a one of them knows whether the city lost money, broke even or made money over the 20 year period. Won't know that for over another year.
Yet you preach.
Must have been a 20 year tax relief that is now over.
Maybe we can build a monorail from the park to the Brandon amphitheater.
Or build a cover over it and add a killer sound system so TSO will play here.
What say “You” Michael Callahan????…..
This is an easy problem to solve. It’s a perfect site for Top Golf.
A lot of local pols eat this shit up with a spoon, these sports teams and their venues. It gives then something they can dangle in front of the yokels and claim how instrumental they were in cutting the deal and bringing it to the people because the pols care, oh, so deeply for the c'myoon'ty.
Sadly these project have shelve live going in and this is about it. Also sadly these deals also have lots of con men involved. This was no different.
Public money moving into private accounts leaving the common man to make up the slack. That's always the goal.
Wait till these goobers realize what school vouchers do.
Attendance was the worst in the minors. They had really good teams for years. Had it been a happening thing they never would have left.
Pearl, has its traffic cams to fall back on
i just read that the city of pearl does NOT own the trustmark park that Spectrum does??
but pearl was paying $900K TO THE BRAVES OR Spectrum;
Spectrum r the ones who charge $50 for ole miss and state tickets and make u pay for parking!!
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