Cal Ripken Saved Baseball, Should He Save His Hometown?
Let me get a few things out of the way before diving deep into this post. First, I grew up and still live in the hometown of Cal Ripken Jr., Aberdeen, MD (Please don’t get me started on their website. We don’t use Mosaic anymore). Second, I surpassed his single game strikeout record at our shared high school, striking out 18 batters in a single game. I just like to mention that ;). Sure, his was in a state championship game, and mine was just a junior varsity game against the little sisters of the poor. Third, I am a season ticket holder to his Aberdeen Ironbirds short-season minor league team. Finally, I’m not privy to all the details of the situation at hand, whether it’s the business end or the political scene here in town.
The Baltimore Sun featured a story on the front page this morning talking about how the city of Aberdeen, MD was looking for someone to buy Ripken Stadium because of a coming deficit. You see, the city struck a horrible deal for them when building the stadium five years ago. They charge the team $1 a year in rent, and the team gets to keep most of the revenue from it’s games. The city seemed to be putting all of their eggs in the basket of a shopping complex, anchored by a multiplex, adjacent to the stadium. Well guess what? The complex has not been completed, nor has the condos on the property which were supposed to bring in more revenue. Now they are having trouble paying back the bonds they took to fund their portion of the construction, and things will only get worse as they are responsible for capital maintenance.
So should Cal Ripken’s group bail the city out? After all, the city of Aberdeen didn’t have many entertainment options before Ripken brought a minor league team here. All the games sell-out, and there is a long waiting list for season tickets. What more does the city want from him? This is nothing more than poor planning by the city. They have had 5 years to adjust. There are many well-documented circumstances that have been out of their control, but in the business world, you are supposed to identify all risks before going through with a project this large. If this would be a sound business decision for Ripken’s group, or any other group for that matter, you can be damn sure they identify all risks up front.
Sunday, March 25th, 2007
March 8th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Cal has pretty much done the best he could, let the city do the rest. This is a perfect example of absence of planning.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Seems like Cal is caught in a conundrum. I’m sure he has a lot of strong feelings for Aberdeen but at what point do just pin the responsibility on the poor planning by the city? I sure hope he isn’t vilified if he chooses to not bail the city out.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
He has already done all possible… Now it is the time for the impossible, but I can’t see the rewards for trying the impossible as satisfactory.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Kudos on your records! A record’s a record… don’t undermine that just because yours in a junior varsity game. Hehe.
I agree with the rest that Cal shouldn’t be held responsible for redeeming the city’s poor planning. At the end of the day, it’s all about the commercial side of matters, that’s probably outside his consideration as a professional player. Isn’t it?
Cheers,
E.Cee