The Springdale City Council last night officially set an election date for July 11 for voters to approve financing for a new baseball stadium. If approved, $50 million would be added to the city's bond program stadium construction, land purchase, infrastructure improvement, and a reserve fund. But Springdale voters will not just be deciding on whether the city should build a stadium to attract a Minor League team, they will apparently also be deciding the fate of the Wichita Wranglers.
Springdale City Councilman Mike Overton said during the meeting that it is the worst-kept secret in the city that the team that would move to Springdale is the Wranglers, whose stadium lease is up in 2008. The Wranglers are affiliated with the Kansas City Royals, owned by former Wal-Mart CEO David Glass (the worst owner in pro sports -- too bad he can't drive his competitors out of business in MLB like in retailing). The owners of the Wranglers operate Rich Products, a food product vendor to Wal-Mart, and you know how Wal-Mart can strong-arm their vendors to make them do anything.
Two things -- If I'm Wichita right now, I'm throwing as much money as possible into the opposition campaign against the ballpark because that's the only way they're keeping the team beyond 2008. Secondly, what a rivalry this will be for the Travelers fans if Springdale gets a team. And part of that rivalry is to make sure our new stadium is better and we have a higher attendance figure. Got that, city of North Little Rock!
Well....tell us what you really think about Wal-Mart.;)
I hope it happens...that would make for a very nice rivalry...and I don't think it would effect attendence at Ray Winder in a negative manner....so let them build it!
Posted by: s-section | May 24, 2006 at 02:05 PM
Well, I am personally thinking that this is a good thing. I don't think we will lose any fans to Springdale having a park. I think it is about time that this state has some good intrastate play.
If this goes down and Springdale does get a park, I think this will be the spark that Central Arkansas needs to boost attendence.
I personally will go to root for the Travelers in Springdale. And I hope they would return the favor.
Posted by: Bree | May 24, 2006 at 04:04 PM
I don't think a team in Springdale will steal any fans away from the Travelers. What I meant was that it will be very embarrassing if this Springdale team blows us away in attendance in only its first year of operation.
Posted by: Travelerocity | May 24, 2006 at 04:29 PM
I agree, it will be embarrassing, not if, but when Springdale beats Central Arkansas in attendance. With that being said, I think it will be awesome to have an intrastate rivalry. That is one thing this great state is missing. We can't have one in any D1 college sport (thanks Frank) so we can have the next best thing with professional baseball.
Posted by: TravelingCard | May 25, 2006 at 09:20 AM
Oh yeah, that would be embarrassing. But they may not beat us in attendence. Won't they have to compete for fans with Baum? I know a lot of people up there only go because it is the Razorbacks.
Posted by: Bree | May 25, 2006 at 09:49 AM
I agree, this intrastate rivalry could be big, bigger than maybe we are even thinking. There is nothing like that in the state right now on any sort of large-scale level. Nothing against the city, but I hope the team won't be wearing road jerseys that say "North Little Rock" when they are playing in northwest Arkansas. It's just not representative enough of the entire metro area.
Posted by: Travelerocity | May 25, 2006 at 10:08 AM
Get use to it...we will
Posted by: Bill Valentine | May 27, 2006 at 04:49 PM