If you like the Mississippi Braves, better see them in 2024.

[Bulldog Bruce]

I wonder if a non affiliated "minor" league is possible. The biggest issue with minor league baseball is you don't get stars developed. Once they get better, they move on. So could there be a league where the MacNamees, Magnums, Jordans, Allens, etc. (that level of player who just isn't going to get a chance in MLB) play in places where MLB is not readily available. This way the fan base gets built on their guys.

In Memphis years back Stubby Clapp became a draw for the Redbirds. LaRussa wasn't going to keep him and once that happens he was let go so the Redbirds couldn't ride that popularity. MLB doesn't really do national TV contracts and still makes a large part of their income on games and Local TV.

I would think this small market league could make money at that smaller scale to support paying top players 250-300k and you would build a fan base to come see players and not just a jersey or possibly future Braves, Mets, etc. You could have these guys for 10 or 15 years.

 

[HotMop]

The outlet mall is crap. When you are having to fill space with VR rooms, axe throwing, escape rooms and no name sandwich/burger places, it has reached the point of no return.

That whole area was poorly planned and cobbled together in piece meal.

if they had built it like a mini version of the Battery where the area was more adjacent to the stadium it would have been much better.

And who the heck even goes to Bass Pro anymore besides Jimmy the redneck and his family from Florence.

I like BPS but I've never considered it a destination. Who the 17 travels to buy fishing gear from a chain?

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Fewer homicides than last year, but last year was a record. Seems like you hear about people in Birmingham being shot daily. The area around the Barons stadium has been rebuilt so it's safer than it once was. Top Golf and the new UAB football stadium has helped a lot, as well as ALDOT spending a ton of money there. And with the new football stadium open- why is the city still keeping Legion Field open? Seems like a money pit.

Top Golf and the new UAB stadium are not near the baseball stadium.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Have been to a Trash Panda's game. I love the location. Just west of downtown Huntsville near the airport and in a real nice area. Top golf real close by too. Lots of good stuff out there.

?? “Just west” of downtown?

 

[SteelCurtain74]

Top Golf and the new UAB stadium are not near each other.

Top Golf is literally across the street from Protective Stadium.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Top Golf is literally across the street from Protective Stadium.

Meant near the baseball field. I edited. Mixed myself up with all the silly talk in this thread.

 

[patdog]

I wonder if a non affiliated "minor" league is possible. The biggest issue with minor league baseball is you don't get stars developed. Once they get better, they move on. So could there be a league where the MacNamees, Magnums, Jordans, Allens, etc. (that level of player who just isn't going to get a chance in MLB) play in places where MLB is not readily available. This way the fan base gets built on their guys.

In Memphis years back Stubby Clapp became a draw for the Redbirds. LaRussa wasn't going to keep him and once that happens he was let go so the Redbirds couldn't ride that popularity. MLB doesn't really do national TV contracts and still makes a large part of their income on games and Local TV.

I would think this small market league could make money at that smaller scale to support paying top players 250-300k and you would build a fan base to come see players and not just a jersey or possibly future Braves, Mets, etc. You could have these guys for 10 or 15 years.

Independent minor leagues are out there. A friends son is pitching in one. He’s got a tryout with the Padres in a month or so. But if he doesn’t make that, he’ll be back in the Indy league.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I bet you and peeper love some Amerigo's.

I do! Don't go there much though, more of a blue plate (or Mexican/Sonics/TB) when eating out.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Top Golf is literally across the street from Protective Stadium.

If you've read this thread it doesn't take long to realize Goat doesn't know what he's posting about.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Eh, you could theoretically keep getting elected by threatening anyone who runs against you, running campaigns like "keep our city safe, keep the riffraff out, keep everything the same as it has been since the '80's", thereby keeping lots of 'unwanted' retail and restaurants and businesses out of your town and allowing municipalities to the north and south to capture growth and tax revenue, while quietly throttling the future of your own community by missing out on those sales and ad valorem taxes, deferring maintenance, refusing strategic thinking and continually kicking the can down the road when it comes to incremental increases in property taxes, despite an undercurrent of the town being on the precipice of woeful underfunding for police, street infrastructure, and longterm growth... I'm just saying, I could see a scenario where that could happen.

Ahhh. From the depths, a challenger emerges. Vote Steight in 2024, down with the 42-year Reich of Mayor Mary.

Hail Steight!

We’ll need to work on your ad campaign though….need a little less passive aggressive and a little more regular aggressive for the common folk to receive the message.

In all seriousness though, can she lose? You’d think age and curmudgeonly behavior would eventually dampen her popularity. You would probably know far better than I about the detailed critiques of her tenure.

 

[ll Martain ll]

Bear in mind, we are approaching a situation where one behemoth company literally owns every AA franchise in the country. That company will literally control the terms of every stadium lease in the entire country

This is "literally" false. DBH (who is a subsidiary of Endeavor) currently owns 28 teams across MiLB. MiLB rules stipulate one owner can't own more than 10 teams at each level. DBH will probably max out and get to 40 teams, which would be 1/3 of MiLB across all levels.

If you're going to spew hyperbole as facts, at least get it right.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

If you've read this thread it doesn't take long to realize Goat doesn't know what he's posting about.

It explains a lot that so many Mississippians have no idea how or why it would be a good idea to locate an MiLB stadium downtown, especially in Jackson. It’s really telling. You’re so backwards and behind you don’t even realize how bad it is. Not a whole lot of hope for the state, honestly. Just keep fighting among ourselves for scraps, with no idea how to do anything but complain. Chase off any line of thought that goes against the tide, that may actually have a shot at changing things for the better.

 

[Rezdog]

100% agree however if Pearl thinks they can make a nickel by adding more outlet stores they're going to do it, for better or worse.

Pearl is the butthole of Rankin county.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Independent minor leagues are out there. A friends son is pitching in one. He’s got a tryout with the Padres in a month or so. But if he doesn’t make that, he’ll be back in the Indy league.

I know there are indy teams. I am talking about a league with no affiliation to MLB at all. Play in places like Jackson, Birmingham, Tucson, Dakotas Carolinas. Places where it takes a person hours to get to an MLB stadium. These teams would get guys who have been released or even players from college that are long shots for MLB. This way when they make a deal with a Jackson or Pearl they can develop their brand and stay put. They are not reliant on MLB to supply players at their convenience. So kinda like Japanese Baseball in the US.

Imagine the Pearl/Jackson team with Jake Mangnum, Tanner Allen, and popular players from OM and USM that stay on that team for 10 or 15 years. Instead of moving around to different minor league towns every year. People would go to the game to see their guys year after year and not just a random group of guys that are destined to leave as they get better. Make these teams the destination for players as opposed to the stepping stone they are now.

After I got released I would have played more ball in a place where I could have made a living. In Auburn NY where I played for the Auburn Astros, I won favorite Astro in a fan voting contest. If I could have gone back the next year, that popularity would grow and maybe the fanbase grows also.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Come on down St Louis Cardinals!
Lot of Red Bird fans in this area including me.

Not gonna happen. They like having the AA in Springfield, MO so that they can get players down there quickly for rehab assignments. They’ll use whoever is in town between the Memphis Redbirds and Springfield Cardinals for rehab assignments.

 

[Bulldog45]

My opinion - a big reason the Jackson metro area is at a disadvantage in terms of supporting a minor league (or any other type of pro sports team) is because we don’t have a centralized business area where it makes sense to locate a stadium. It would help to have an area where younger people work and live and where business travelers come and stay during the week and are looking for entertainment options close by to after the work day ends. To me that’s who you need coming to the stadium during the week. The Pearl location seems to be about as centralized an area in terms of access we could get but still too far outside of what most folks would consider convenient to get to and return to home or a after a work day.

The Braves run some good community promotions but they don’t seem to be marketed too well by the communities from what I’ve seen. Of course I can understand Madison/Ridgeland not putting much effort into marketing an event in Pearl but it’s a shame they don’t see the value in it for the metro as a whole.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

My opinion - a big reason the Jackson metro area is at a disadvantage in terms of supporting a minor league (or any other type of pro sports team) is because we don’t have a centralized business area where it makes sense to locate a stadium. It would help to have an area where younger people work and live and where business travelers come and stay during the week and are looking for entertainment options close by to after the work day ends. To me that’s who you need coming to the stadium during the week. The Pearl location seems to be about as centralized an area in terms of access we could get but still too far outside of what most folks would consider convenient to get to and return to home or a after a work day.

The Braves run some good community promotions but they don’t seem to be marketed too well by the communities from what I’ve seen. Of course I can understand Madison/Ridgeland not putting much effort into marketing an event in Pearl but it’s a shame they don’t see the value in it for the metro as a whole.

I've ranted about this forever. Not just the metro but the whole state. Attractions needs to be close together and walkable (if possible) with restaurants and lodging nearby. We spread stuff out. Grammy museum in Cleveland, other that the students and others associated with DSU, the town gets few visitors. South of H'burg (a couple miles off a major highway), there is a very good Armed Forces Museum. It's located on Camp Shelby though and gets few non military visitors, had it been located on Hwy 49, it would get a ton of tourists. Situations like this can be found all over the state. In the metro, you had a start, Sports Hall of Fame, Children's Museum, National Science Museum, Smith Wills and the Ag Museum within a mile radius, with plenty of space to expand and in safe, convenient area. So what do we do? Put the Civil Rights Museum (and the museum next door) 5 miles away. The LeFleur's Bluff area could still be developed into an area that draws tourists, but it would take cooperation between the state and city, and under current city leadership, that's not going to happen. The city would have to bend the knee and that's a non starter.

There's no hotels or restaurants adjacent to the Jxn Convention Center, and very few within a mile radius. Who's going to book a convention with no restaurants, lodging or entertainment nearby? Obviously grift is one reason stuff ends up where it does. I can accept grift, but when but coupled with massive incompetence and lack of vision, you end up with what Jxn has become.

We have a great opportunity on campus, tear down or renovate the Hunter Henry atrocity into some type of museum or attraction. It'd get visitors associated with game days and is in walking distance of the Cotten District, plus there's room for other development in that area. The clock museum is taking up some very valuable real estate, let's talk to the Wade's about doing something with that space that would attract folks. Since we are President Grant's Library, how about a Civil War Museum on campus (maybe at the Hunter Henry site), funded by federal collars of course. There's no big Native American museum in the state (that i know of), that's another option. Slap a casino in it!

 

[OG Goat Holder]

My opinion - a big reason the Jackson metro area is at a disadvantage in terms of supporting a minor league (or any other type of pro sports team) is because we don’t have a centralized business area where it makes sense to locate a stadium. It would help to have an area where younger people work and live and where business travelers come and stay during the week and are looking for entertainment options close by to after the work day ends. To me that’s who you need coming to the stadium during the week. The Pearl location seems to be about as centralized an area in terms of access we could get but still too far outside of what most folks would consider convenient to get to and return to home or a after a work day.

The Braves run some good community promotions but they don’t seem to be marketed too well by the communities from what I’ve seen. Of course I can understand Madison/Ridgeland not putting much effort into marketing an event in Pearl but it’s a shame they don’t see the value in it for the metro as a whole.

This is the whole point of locating a stadium downtown. And also, the whole point of the CCID.

I understand all the problems in Jackson, but you've got to at least try.

But, it does seem insurmountable. City won't work with the State, and then bltches about the State. And the State can't even get the CCID right. I get it. But there's no use in just doing dumb stuff, although I recognize Trustmark Park was done sort of independently by Pearl, who should have known better and tried to see the greater good.

 

[Darryl Steight]

Ahhh. From the depths, a challenger emerges. Vote Steight in 2024, down with the 42-year Reich of Mayor Mary.

Hail Steight!

We’ll need to work on your ad campaign though….need a little less passive aggressive and a little more regular aggressive for the common folk to receive the message.

In all seriousness though, can she lose? You’d think age and curmudgeonly behavior would eventually dampen her popularity. You would probably know far better than I about the detailed critiques of her tenure.

No passive aggression. No aggression at all from me, cap'n. I'd be too scared to say anything negative about she-who-shall-not-be-named.**

She smiles on camera and is all sunshine and rainbows and blessings when she sees her subjects out in public, so voters don't see any of this supposed 'curmudgeonly behavior' you mentioned. They don't know anything deeper than home values and perceived safety, so they'll keep voting for her. It's completely understandable.

The good news for her people is, she plans to run forever and there's no way she can lose because no one dares to run against her. And if they do, that campaign will get stomped out with the quickness. Bless their hearts.

 

[Bulldog45]

I have to disagree regarding Jackson/Pearl. I think the Braves lasted a lot longer in Pearl than they would have in Jackson. A stadium downtown at the minor league level is in my opinion an enhancement not a catalyst to drive development, similar to a wasted convention center. There has to be some real progress and momentum in downtown before you stick a stadium down there and the only real momentum in that area has been and continues to be backwards.

 

[Darryl Steight]

It explains a lot that so many Mississippians have no idea how or why it would be a good idea to locate an MiLB stadium downtown, especially in Jackson. It’s really telling. You’re so backwards and behind you don’t even realize how bad it is. Not a whole lot of hope for the state, honestly. Just keep fighting among ourselves for scraps, with no idea how to do anything but complain. Chase off any line of thought that goes against the tide, that may actually have a shot at changing things for the better.

You just described the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in most every damn municipality around here. Not every, but most. They only care about getting re-elected, not what may be best for the long term.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

I have to disagree regarding Jackson/Pearl. I think the Braves lasted a lot longer in Pearl than they would have in Jackson. A stadium downtown at the minor league level is in my opinion an enhancement not a catalyst to drive development, similar to a wasted convention center. There has to be some real progress and momentum in downtown before you stick a stadium down there and the only real momentum in that area has been and continues to be backwards.

Maybe so, but that's a separate problem. If this is going to continue, then may as well just not have a team anywhere in the Metro.

You just described the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in most every damn municipality around here. Not every, but most. They only care about getting re-elected, not what may be best for the long term.

It's really sad and depressing, but it appears many in the state gave up years ago. And the ones who do won't to make a change, really don't seem to know how, and want to give away the farm for bad ideas.

Most have just accepted it, and are content to go on lavish vacations and spend all their money elsewhere, and brag about it on facebook. They just ignore the decline.

To me, it's no coincidence the small pockets of success in this state are entities that have engines that are not 100% correlated to the state. Memphis Metro is obviously linked to the City of Memphis, the Coast is about as far away from MS as you can be and near totally independent. If anything, it's more Louisiana than Mississippi (with the LA corruption that follows).

Then of course the major colleges are doing well but we've outlined before how they may on borrowed time and are the last holdouts that are dependent on the state. The damage being done now may not been seen for a good while longer.

I mean, name ONE town in MS outside Memphis, the Coast and the college towns that has a long-term, sustainable path for true growth on its own? And let's face it, all those 3 are limited by other factors, and aren't growing at any real high clip. I'd love to see the Coast blow up....but....hurricanes (proven to come repeatedly).

It all comes back to the Jackson Metro or bust. If people think it's too far gone or can't be helped, then neither can this state. At least in a meaningful way.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Not gonna happen. They like having the AA in Springfield, MO so that they can get players down there quickly for rehab assignments. They’ll use whoever is in town between the Memphis Redbirds and Springfield Cardinals for rehab assignments.

I think the Isotopes have Springfield locked down.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

The Memphis Redbirds are near the bottom of attendance for AAA. I think the only reason they will stay around is because of the proximity to St Louis.

I got curious so I read an article that showed that while post-pandemic attendance is back to 2019 levels, it's still on the same trend downward since about 2007. And we've all heard about the slow decline of baseball.

All the things I'm talking about in this thread are idealistic ways to use MiLB to do things in cities/metros, and how to use to create and embrace culture and development (and ultimately quality of life), but it may be best to pursue other avenues rather than baseball. My thoughts are that farm teams/systems do not draw TV eyeballs, and are we in an increasingly TV-centric market. So it seems that cities might be better served to pursue sporting events that matter - i.e., they are the top of the field (MLS maybe? etc.) or things like the NCAA tournaments/playoffs. Or other niche things, maybe MMA? Hell I don't know what's out there these days. Maybe build a pristine golf course or something.

 

[Baddog11]

And with the new football stadium open- why is the city still keeping Legion Field open?

Because they are holding out hope that Alabama comes back to play one last game?

 

[dudehead]

I mean, name ONE town in MS outside Memphis, the Coast and the college towns that has a long-term, sustainable path for true growth on its own? And let's face it, all those 3 are limited by other factors, and aren't growing at any real high clip. I'd love to see the Coast blow up....but....hurricanes (proven to come repeatedly).

Tupelo.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Tupelo.

Tupelo is fine, but it's no economic engine for the state. And it seems like the furniture industry there is a shell of itself. I mean we're talking about a town of 38K which actually lost population from 2020-2022. 2010-2020 growth had been decent.

But I hope you're right, long-term. Honestly, the NE corner of the state is about all the hope we got. I wish Tupelo and the Golden Triangle were closer, then we might have the hope of a NW Arkansas type of thing going on, but in typical MS fashion, we are too spread out.

And of course, with 2 major universities a solid hour away in each direction. What if we'd had one, in or around Tupelo? One can dream. Or even if one of them was there. Geography and planning are not MS' strong suits.

 

[RocketDawg]

?? “Just west” of downtown?

It's about 10 miles west of downtown Huntsville, but soon will be very accessible soon with the 565 flyovers for entry from Huntsville and exit toward Decatur. Takes 10 minutes without rush hour traffic. Now, before the interchange is complete, getting to the stadium from downtown is a bit more of trek, but still not bad. But it's not "just west". The airport is another 2 or so miles west of that. The stadium is in a good location for current growth patterns for the area, but if you live in south, north, or east Huntsville it can be a bit of a PiTA to get to. Will interest to the level of attending a game be as much in 5 or 10 years? Probably not. It's still relatively new now, and plenty of room for kids to run around on the berms and not disturb those in the stands. And perhaps most important of all, it's a safe area.

 

[RocketDawg]

It explains a lot that so many Mississippians have no idea how or why it would be a good idea to locate an MiLB stadium downtown, especially in Jackson. It’s really telling. You’re so backwards and behind you don’t even realize how bad it is. Not a whole lot of hope for the state, honestly. Just keep fighting among ourselves for scraps, with no idea how to do anything but complain. Chase off any line of thought that goes against the tide, that may actually have a shot at changing things for the better.

What are the advantages of a downtown stadium vs a suburban location? I can't think of any. Maybe in some places, but not here. Maybe it would be ideal in Jackson - I've not been there in many years. There is literally no room for a stadium and reasonable parking downtown Huntsville (of course, it depends on how one defines "downtown").

 

[OG Goat Holder]

What are the advantages of a downtown stadium vs a suburban location? I can't think of any. Maybe in some places, but not here. Maybe it would be ideal in Jackson - I've not been there in many years. There is literally no room for a stadium and reasonable parking downtown Huntsville (of course, it depends on how one defines "downtown").

I’ve outlined this multiple times in this thread.

 

[mcdawg22]

I think the Isotopes have Springfield locked down.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I’ve outlined this multiple times in this thread.

Downtown Memphis is a detriment to attendance of the Redbirds.