{"id":10733,"date":"2015-08-28T00:56:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T00:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10733"},"modified":"2015-08-28T00:56:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T00:56:20","slug":"build-it-and-they-will-come-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10733","title":{"rendered":"Build it and they will come … yes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Amarillo<\/a><\/p>\n

I keep hearing critics of Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose event venue — which includes a ballpark design — argue that the city isn’t a baseball town.<\/p>\n

They point to the sparse “crowds” that often populate that certifiable trash heap called Potter County Memorial Stadium for the Amarillo Thunderheads games.<\/p>\n

There’s your baseball interest, some of them have proclaimed.<\/p>\n

I prefer to look at it differently.<\/p>\n

The MPEV is up for a vote Nov. 3. City voters will get to decide whether they want to proceed with the MPEV as it’s currently designed. A “yes” vote means it moves forward; a “no” vote means the city should look for another design.<\/p>\n

The dump where the Thunderheads play their home games isn’t a suitable venue for anyone.<\/p>\n

The MPEV, estimated to cost around $32 million, will present a golden opportunity for the city to attract a major league franchise to hook up with a farm team based in Amarillo.<\/p>\n

It’s always been my experience that sports fans prefer to sit in a modern venue with nice amenities to watch athletes perform on the field. The place formerly known as the Dilla Villa is not that place.<\/p>\n

I continue to believe the downtown project as presented is worth supporting. The MPEV — whether it contains a ball field or becomes something else eventually — should be a part of the city’s effort to spruce up its downtown district.<\/p>\n

They’ve started work on the new Xcel Energy office complex. They’ve cleared the old Coca-Cola distribution center site, relocating it at a new business park. The old jail site has been cleared.<\/p>\n

A developer is set to begin work on a downtown convention hotel. And a parking garage is planned for the property next to it.<\/p>\n

Will the MPEV be a part of this work? I happen to hope it is.<\/p>\n

As for whether Panhandle residents — whether they live in Amarillo or in surrounding communities — will support minor-league baseball if it’s able to move into the new venue, well, time will tell.<\/p>\n

It must depend on whether some marketing geniuses can develop a strategy to attract a major league franchise’s attention.<\/p>\n

A gleaming new site — if it’s promoted properly — can be enough of a lure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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I keep hearing critics of Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose event venue — which includes a ballpark design — argue that the city isn’t a baseball town. They point to the sparse “crowds” that often populate that certifiable trash heap called Potter County Memorial Stadium for the Amarillo Thunderheads games. There’s your baseball interest, some of them … Continue reading Build it and they will come … yes?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1436,3153,5365],"class_list":["post-10733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-mpev","tag-potter-county-memorial-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10734,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10733\/revisions\/10734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}