Baseball Journal 4-14-13 Demolition Weekend

OMG! It’s happening just like they said! North Korea has bombed us! I saw it on TV. They destroyed the iconic Asarco towers and city hall in El Paso. I don’t know why they’d choose such low-value targets, but they’re gone! It’s just like the Red Dawn remake and Olympus Has Fallen at the movies. We’re at WAR people!

Or it was just a senseless act of civic--vandalism (two different videos linked).

You might be wondering about the baseball angle on this. Bear with me for a minute. The El Paso Diablos Double A team used to play in a facility nicknamed, “The Dudley Dome.” No, it wasn’t a dome. In fact, it was probably just a step above a vacant lot with a baseball diamond scratched out on it. You know, someplace where neighborhood kids might play the game.

Thanks to Jim Paul’s inspired ownership and lobbying, the gracious citizens of El Paso eventually granted the Diablos a superb new ballpark, Cohen Stadium. All was good. Until Jim sold to the team to an out-of-town interest, who ran the club into the ground and out of town. (Ironically, my relatives in the Springfield, Missouri are now enjoying the team in their new life as the Cardinals.)

Currently an Independent League team plays at “The Cone,” virtually anonymously. I think they’re owned by the local Indian tribe, which may have occurred after the state shutdown their casino. (That’s not a sarcastic joke, by the way.)

Then the Padres’ Triple A team came up for sale. Some local interests became fascinated with the prospect of buying this team and using it to bilk the city out of millions of dollars. (Pure speculation on my part.) A few greased palms, kickbacks, and bribes later to a typically corrupt city government, and El Paso was getting a new baseball team. (Again, pure speculation on my part.) But, we must have a new stadium. Where shall it go? Hey, let’s demolish city hall! It’s like 30 years old. It’s ancient. Besides, it’s downtown. What a great opportunity to revitalize the area.

So, we have been lead to this, Demolition Weekend. The Asarco towers were thrown in as a powerful metaphor to the ending of all manufacturing jobs in the area. Now if this were a private enterprise trying to setup a factory, we’d still be in the planning stages, fighting off lawsuits, and getting EPA approval for the next five years. But with the right friends, properly paid off and using a bunch of taxpayer money, it all happens inside of a year. No, the citizens didn’t get a vote on this. It’s all going to be paid by a hotel tax on visitors to the city. It’ll also pay for the new city hall. Really. This time, for sure. You can trust us. (Okay, that was sarcasm.)

What will follow this weekend will one day be called, Disaster Decade. This is where next year when the new ballpark opens, a bunch of new fans show up to the first game. They will discover to their horror that the price of parking will be more than the cost of the average ticket (and their car doesn’t even get to see the game). Outraged, they will never come back again. Revenues to the team will plummet. Thanks to the creative contract between the city and the new team, since the locals aren’t supporting them, the team will be able to break their lease. (Once again, pure speculation. Right now, the Tampa Rays are stuck in an ironclad 30-year lease in a crap stadium. I assure you, no other professional sports team will ever allow that to happen again.) Oh, the city will raise taxes on everybody trying to subsidize the team, but that will prove to be a problematical and futile. The team will bolt to another city within 10 years, and taxes will not go down after they leave, because the city will still be paying for the facility (and the new city hall).

I’d love to be wrong. The area embraces the new team and they become a family tradition for many years to come. The new ballpark becomes a cherished landmark. The same local media (sports and news), who championed this cause, wholeheartedly support the franchise and drive fans to the games.

It’s not gonna happen. The team will be ignored by the citizens and media. The ballpark will eventually receive all the love that Marlins Park currently enjoys from their locals. That is to say, a monument to the greed of the owners and corruption of their local politicians. In fact, Marlins Park was sold and funded under similar circumstances in Miami. Amazing that no local reporter ever made that connection. And so, the city of El Paso will be left with two excellent baseball facilities, and I doubt even an Independent League team to fill either of them.