El Paso Mayor John Cook has remained opposed to plans to demolish City Hall to make room for a new $50 million downtown ballpark for the Triple-A Tucson Padres (Pacific Coast League), but he has said he would not issue a veto of the project if he believed it would be overturned by a three-fourths majority vote of 6-2 by the city council. The balanced could now be tipped in the mayor’s favor, as City Council Rep. Emma Acosta voiced opposition Friday to the baseball stadium contract as written. Read more here.
El Paso Ballpark Project in Jeopardy?
Filed under Design & Construction, Stadium Issues
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Brian I agree, Cohen Stadium could work for triple-A. If the city & and owners of the triple-A team worked together and came up with 10-15 million Cohen Stadium could be fixed up. New playing surface, HD video board, update concessions, and clubhouses. The seating bowl is fine to watch a game from. I think it’s a big watse of money myself to go out and build a new ballpark. I also heard they need to tare down the current city hall in order to build the new ballpark they want. I can’t see triple-A being played in El Paso till 2015 at the earliest if at all.
El Paso already has a AAA ballpark, why do they need another ? Seriously, for probably $40 million less, Cohen Stadium could be renovated to accommodate a AAA team. The park is easy to get to, has scenic views, and is built using the same template that every new ballpark nowadays has. Why is that 25 years ago every team was fleeing the downtown locations, but now they all want to go back ?
By the sound of things Tuesday is the big day for the city of El Paso to decide if it will go ahead and build a $50 million ballpark in downtown El Paso.
Moving any affiliate North of the Border, has a couple risks. Weather, Travel, Having to cross the border.
Ron I don’t think Escondino is an option, that’s why the owner of the Tus Pad is selling.
Edmonton, Ottawa, even Calgary we’re great cities for triple-A. Calgary left because they couldn’t get a ballpark built. Edmonton left because Nolan Ryan offered BIG CASH to buy the team. Ottawa left because no other teams we’re left in Canada. Another thing is you need a MLB team willing to move it’s triple-A team to the location your looking at. In the PCL I only see Tucson, Las Vegas, maybe Nashville open to moving. All of the other teams in the PCL have brand new ballparks that are no older than 10-12 years. I say why not expand into Canada, Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal all deserve affiliated baseball of some sort.
Why is it so hard for the team to work in Tucson? It is a rather large area outside of Phoenix…Could the team possibly end up back working out a deal in escondino, ca? or even Edmonton, Honolulu, Ottawa (some of the markets that had Triple A success in the past)?
So what happens if El Paso doesn’t build a ballpark? Is the team on the market for anyone to buy. With Ottawa getting a Eastern League, and the Milb maybe looking to get teams back into Canada, I wonder if Vancouver which has a Northwest League team and is very sucessful would build a new ballpark for triple-A. Edmonton, Winnipeg? I really don’t know of to many markets in the US right now that would want to build a ballpark for triple-A
If El Paso can’t get it done, expect the team to be back on the market. I don’t believe MiLB is looking to get teams back in Canada, but that doesn’t mean the idea is off the table. This is the most recent comment from Vancouver:
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/baseball/Vancouver+Canadians+owner+loving+single+life/7220724/story.html
Alan