Baseball fans Jarrod Reynolds and Kyle Thompson hold signs in support of plans to build a minor league stadium in Wilmington before a City Council meeting Aug. 7, 2012.
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Published: Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.
For much of the year, it seemed barely a week, and sometimes a day, went by with no mention of bringing a minor league baseball team to the Port City.
Nearly two months after Wilmington voters shot down a proposal to build a taxpayer-funded stadium, Mayor Bill Saffo said this is still a viable market for a ballpark.
But he doubts baseball will be discussed for the next decade. ?At least,? he added.
In November, 70 percent of city voters rejected the proposal to fund and build a $37 million stadium. The vote followed a lengthy discussion period between the Atlanta Braves, which would have brought a minor league team to the Port City, and Mandalay Baseball, which would have operated the stadium.
The campaign leading up to the vote was contentious and ?Vote No Stadium Tax? signs popped up across the city.
Saffo, who supported the stadium deal, said after the vote that the city would not pursue baseball. Weeks later, that hasn?t changed.
?I think the only option that?s out there that voters made very clear is that it would have to be a privately funded deal,? Saffo said.
Representatives from both Mandalay and the Braves said they had no plans to pursue a stadium after the failed referendum.
?There is no plan B as far as we?re concerned,? said Rich Neumann, Mandalay?s president of baseball development, just after the vote. ?We?ve done everything we could do to bring this opportunity to Wilmington and we feel it?s over, barring some complete, unforeseen set of circumstances,? he said.
But no private deal has yet to surface.
After the vote, Terry Spencer, chairman of the ?Vote Yes!? effort, said the group would support any future baseball opportunities that surfaced. But he wasn?t optimistic.
?If there were any investors, they would have come out of the woodwork by now,? he said.
Julian March: 343-2099
On Twitter: @julian_march
Source: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20121229/articles/121229694
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