Question 17

[Charlotte Chamber]

Will baseball succeed upon its return to Charlotte in a center city location?

[Chris Conlon]

Baseball will be difficult, no matter where it is located. There are so many entertainment venues, and with the price of everything going up it will be hard to have a critical mass of people that will continue to go to games once the novelty of the new venue has worn off. We have seen it happen already with the Bobcats. The price of the entertainment goes up, the team may not make it to the playoffs, families and businesses are squeezed financially and attendance drops off. It would be great to think that Charlotte could support football, basketball, baseball, racing and all other forms of entertainment to please a more diverse group of citizens, but it remains to be seen if the appeal can spread beyond the boosters and make it successful.

[Glen Stephens]

Why do we care? With all of the other problems which face Charlotte, baseball should be the least of our concerns! Everytime someone or some group wants a new sports team or wants to move an existing team; we build them a stadium or arena. Tax dollars must be raised! Land must be aquired! We either bend existing rules or change the laws all together.

We need to worry about schools, medical care, roads, transit, and services! Maybe if we worried about these, our most medically fragile children would not have to be wait listed for critical services!!!