Nuts owners need public money to build the facility.
There are some people in Modesto, California who think people living in the San Francisco Bay Area which includes Oakland and San Jose, will make the 90 mile or so trip down to Modesto to watch minor league baseball and enjoy Modesto’s finest restaurants if a new ballpark for the Modesto Nuts is built. The Modesto Nuts franchise is a baseball team that plays in the lowest rung of the minor leagues. The stadium that Nuts owners want would seat 5,000 people and requires at least $75 million in public financing. The Nuts would share the facility with men’s and women’s soccer teams, along with concerts and other events. The Seattle Mariners ownership, which has a piece of the Nuts business, would manage the facility.
Modesto stadium backers have rolled out an old notion. If you build it, they will come. A new stadium would be an economic generator and put Modesto on the map. The stadium proponents claim a new stadium would help make Modesto a destination. A far more attractive city, and would attract high-skilled, high-wage workers and spur the building of offices, housing and stores in downtown. “It’s much more than building a new ballpark or facility downtown,” said Lynn Dickerson who is one of the stadium backers. “We want to do this because we think it’s something that will make our community better and stronger.” Why is there a need for a new stadium? It is because of Major League Baseball’s 2020 take over of Minor League Baseball. MLB has come up with new standards for minor league facilities and has told local communities fix up an old stadium to our standards or you will lose your minor league baseball license. The present Modesto facility was built in 1955 and was renovated in 1996 in an effort to satisfy the Single A California League requirement for stadiums.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
