Like TD columnist Michael Paul Williams, I suspect about 90% of the region's population is pretty entrenched in their opinions about when, where and whether a new baseball park should be built in the Richmond region. (They fall roughly into the camps of Shockoe Bottom, Boulevard, Manchester, western Chesterfield and "who cares".)
Today, Williams makes a pretty blunt case for just shutting up and building the damn thing:
It's time to end this long, drawn-out debate over the best site for a new baseball stadium in Richmond.
The Shockoe Bottom location represents the only real momentum we have toward a ballpark. Highwoods Proper ties, which has proposed the Shockoe Center development, appears to be the big-league player in the batter's box.
Mayor Dwight C. Jones is correct in saying there is no consensus on the ballpark. But if we wait to build consensus, we'll never build a ballpark. People are entrenched in their points of view.
The ever-cautious Jones must lead here, moving various parties and regional partners beyond self-interest...
...Everyone but Richmond seems to know downtown is the place to go.
Having all but cornered the proposed ballpark's developers into making way for a GRTC transfer station, a high-speed rail connection and something more than a passing nod to Shockoe Bottom's historical roots as a major hub for the slave trade, Mayor Jones has all but ensured that there will be a minor construction boom in the bottom right around the corner.
From where I sit (in the "Who cares?" camp), making sure we get a state-of-the-art bus transfer station, a high-speed rail connection downtown and somehow manage not to bury our history again is worth the price of admission to a new ballfield in the Bottom. I'm not convinced that the market can bear the weight of a $300 million-plus mixed use baseball-centered development downtown, but if you add in those other three anchors I'm a bit less of a skeptic.
