Gee....it looks like Biloxi after 9 years of trying is going to get minor league baseball

http://www.pnj.com/viewart/20130531/NEWS01/305310018/Miss-use-15M-BP-funds-stadium

Please note that they are spending more for the stadium than Pensacola did per seat........and they are not even buying the land.....they are leasing it. So for 35 million they will simply have a stadium........Maybe people with a brain can start to realize how successful the baseball operations have been in Pensacola and what a great deal Pensacola got with the entire Maritime Park being owned by the public. Their studies indicate 10 million tourist dollars a year from baseball......so what will the taxpayers have in Biloxi in twenty years.....nothing.....they do not own the land.....The Beau Rivage is going to lease them their parking lot..........I only hope this baseball stadium does not impact Mary Mahoney's restaurant which is right where they are proposing this stadium.

Now if the State of Florida would allow about 12 casino licenses......old stinky would become a casino and Pensacola would become a destination...........but maybe those folks over in Biloxi are just stupid.....yep......I think some folks need to get on their newspaper forums and tell them they do not have a clue.....minor league baseball will not have people attending.......and after failing in all their arguments......they will start posting about the record of wins or losses of the team.......priceless.

Well, I would imagine Biloxi's park will draw more of a crowd than Pensacola because there will be casino package's including a game, free game's offered as comps that the casino's are purchasing. In the past two months I have had free VIP passes to smoking on the sound and a free golf package from Hard Rock, oh and not to mention the Hooter's bikini contest. lol Only had a chance to use smoking on the sound. Yep, it will do well.

The CMPA, as of now, has effectively financially devastated the City of Pensacola. We are broke..... It will take years just to stop the issues that are taking place as we speak.


Charles Bare City Councilman on Advance Pensacola

Airport Grant: Good News with Strings
by Councilman Bare · Comments (0)
29
MAY
This morning I received an email from a constituent asking me about where the city’s matching money required for a proposed grant for the Pensacola airport would come from. Since I was not aware of any $11 million grant, I was forced to pull up the local newspaper web site where I saw the story. At no point was I ever made aware of these funds or this grant before it was printed in the local paper. So at this point, I have no idea what source we can use for the match.

As I read the article, it appears that we will have to match 100% of whatever we receive. I know that we have about $250,000 in the economic development incentive fund, so I believe that we can probably receive a $250,000 grant. We can match that with existing funds. Beyond that, I have no idea what the potential source for a city match would be. While the idea of adding aerospace infrastructure to our airport is exciting, our current budget situation limits our flexibility.

I am hopeful that additional information will be shared with the council as we approach our next meeting.

A "priceless" repost. Think Biloxi can top this?

In Weekly
LOSERS
Pensacola Downtown CRA
The Community Redevelopment Agency has lost its director and is doing little to increase revenue to handle payments due on outstanding bonds for the maritime park and to ECUA for relocating its Main Street plant. So, of course, the CRA chairman Brian Spencer and City Administrator Bill Reynolds have suspended any CRA meetings. Only in Pensacola.

Randy Oliver
The former county administrator delivered on Jan. 31 to the mayor, city council and Community Maritime Park Associates his report on the operations of the maritime park. We all thought that was it and waited for Mayor Ashton Hayward to tell the citizens what he will do with the recommendations. Nearly three months later, we learn Oliver has a new final report. Again we wait (thumbs twiddling) for Hayward.

Pensacola Neighborhood Services
In March 2012, the city department was awarded the contract to manage the maritime park. In its proposal, the department projected it would generate $235,000 from concerts, rentals, vendor rentals and miscellaneous. As of March 31, 2013, Neighborhood Services missed the mark by nearly $200,000, taking only $37,115 for those items. It’s only success was charging for parking for Wahoo games and other events. Oliver failed to mention this in his reports. Hmmm.

HG you should know by now that you are preaching to the choir when you bring up all the problems the CMPA is currently facing.

So you think the parking lot is not near the water.........go to the Beau Rivage.........so you think that naming it Maritime Park was the problem......so you think them spending much more money on the stadium, and the public not even owning the land is a good thing........You think we have a good old boy system in Pensacola.......20 million from taxpayers and 15 million from BP, and thirty years from now the public does not own the land........I think the total allocated to the ballpark in Pensacola was between 17 million and twenty million and the taxpayers own the land.........They have been trying for nine years to pull this off and it took a BP spill, yet Pensacola pulled off this success spending less on the ballpark, leaving a wonderful park for the citizens 40 years from now........and the best part with this park, you are going to see a real effort for a northern Florida spring training league.......I have argued this for five years. The cold weather teams in Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Milwaukee, Mn, and NY go from eighty degree AZ weather to 25 degree weather.......the reason it will not happen will be precipitation which is high in march in April here......but if four teams would finish their last 10 spring training games on the gulf coast utilizing Mobile, Biloxi , and Pensacola this could be huge......I think this is the challenge for these three teams.....the fans of those major league teams could easily and comfortably drive to these cities where southern florida and AZ are flights.....huge potential developing, and if you could throw in New Orleans.......bingo.....you could pull off a coup equal to AZ stealing spring from Florida....huge upside.

They are building it across the highway from the water, Not on the water.


You now have me questioning your knowledge......I saw the damage after Katrina.....I saw the Jefferson Davis home......across the highway.....destroyed......I saw the damage to businesses completely destroyed across the highway......for two miles.....but then if your geography was the only deficiency.....your math sucks..... do you think the 15 million of BP money is any less public money? Do you think 2k seats cost over 18 million.....nope math and geography are right up there with accessing economic success.....Maritime Park which has been portrayed falsely as a boondoggle is an obvious success compared to Biloxi numbers, yet these folks did studies which showed a 10 million dollar economic impact this ballpark will have on their community.

Now you think Maritime Park has management problems.....330k folks voting with their feet and you think paying almost double in Biloxi will lead to success, yet the obvious success of Maritime leaving ownership in the public when a Casino simply is getting a gift from the public on their land......yep Hallmark School had some great geography and math teachers........but then again Mr. Studer brought this success with less money and his legacy will be the public nature of Maritime Park.....and your problem with Mr. Studer has clouded your judgment.

Says Mr Oats
"I saw the damage to businesses completely destroyed across the highway......for two miles.....but then if your geography was the only deficiency".


So I guess the poor Beau Rivage folks need a lesson from Seaoats on where to build their property's. According to you , no one should build anything closer than 2 miles from the coast. You are aware of the cost to build and operate the Beau Rivage. I am sure they have never thought of what would happen in another Hurricane,


GENERAL PROPERTY FACTS
Originally opened: March 16, 1999; re-opened: August 29, 2006
[b]Original cost: $800 million; renovation cost: $550 million[/b]
A wholly owned subsidiary of MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL™
The largest employer in Biloxi with 3,800+ employees
The largest resort in the Southeast to receive the AAA Four Diamond award; recognized by both Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure as one of the top resorts in the country
The tallest and largest building in Mississippi reaching 32 stories and 3.2 million square feet
Features the most table games, guest rooms and meeting space on the Gulf Coast
Conveniently located on the Gulf Coast in Biloxi approximately an hour drive from New Orleans to the west and Mobile, Alabama to the east; near the Gulfport/Biloxi International Airport, serviced by 6 major airlines with 48 regular daily non-stop flights
Beau Rivage features 1,740 guest rooms and suites, redesigned casino floor, 12 restaurants, four lounges and bars, 12 retail venues, spa and salon, pool and convention center

They are giving the people the property. 20 year free lease with Options.

What do you think Studers Ball Park will look like in 40 years? What is the life expectancy of such a water front structure?

The Ball Park ,as it is set up, does not pay enough money for the electricity to operate the lights.

In all your posts you seem to deny that there are any issues with the CMPA.
It has been mismanaged from its conception and continues to be very problematic.

Maybe Biloxi and the Beau Rivage should get Mr Studer and the CMPA to give them a few lessons on how to develop a "real" ball park that will benefit the public.

I used to think abortion was the most divisive of all issues. Then it was muslims. And lately queers and queer marriage/littering.
But fellow babies, NOTHING is more divisive than minor league baseball. lol
Just pray that queers don't start playing baseball or we'll be in another all out civil war. lol

Looks like it is too late...................

“They can’t say that a gay man can’t play in the Majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it.”- Glenn Burke
Major League Baseball has been going strong now for well over a century. Many thousands of players have taken the field since the beginning of organized professional baseball, but only one, Glenn Burke, ever “came out of the closet” during his playing career, letting managers, teammates, and owners know he was gay. Burke also is noted as being the man who popularized, and possibly invented, the high-five.
Burke was born in 1952 in Oakland, California. By the age of 18, he was voted Northern California’s high school “basketball player of the year”. A highly gifted athlete, Glenn could reputedly dunk a basketball with either hand- quite a feat considering he was just over six feet tall. But he soon turned all his attention to baseball.
An outfielder, he was drafted by the L.A. Dodgers and, as so often happens with young “toolsy” prospects when scouts are trying to hype them, he was quickly compared to one of the greats of all time- touted as “the next Willie Mays”.
Burke made his MLB debut on April 9, 1976. From the word go, Burke made no secret of the fact that he was gay, freely talking about it with teammates and management. As a result of this, during his time with the Dodgers, then General Manager Al Campanis offered to treat Burke to a lavish honeymoon (actually offering him $75,000), if Burke would just agree to get married- no doubt worried that the fact that Burke was gay would be leaked or discovered by the media at some point with how open Burke was about it. Burke responded to this marriage request by saying, ”I guess you mean to a woman?” He refused the offer.
Despite management apparently being uncomfortable about Burke’s sexual preferences, players didn’t seem to feel the same way. Burke was often described in his Dodger days as “the life of the clubhouse”.
While things were great with

Read more at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/04/the-only-major-league-baseball-player-to-openly-admit-he-was-gay-during-his-career-also-may-have-invented-the-high-five/#t0f75X7fH3dfb1jC.99

Maybe people with a brain can start to realize how successful the baseball operations have been in Pensacola and what a great deal Pensacola got with the entire Maritime Park being owned by the public.



Lol what a load of crap. Since when is being in debt a success?

Different attitude in Biloxi. No hoodwinking the voters letting em vote for this but later give em the opposite of what they voted for.

Successful, lol we cant even rent out the Amphitheater!

Let us not forget there is still one retail spot avail inside the stadium & no one wants to rent that space lol.


Successful ha ha.

PICS of the Biloxi Stadium:

http://www.mainstreetbiloxi.com/Biloxi/stadiumrenderings.pdf



[b]

Damn!! Even the Umpires.............

PORTLAND, Maine — When former Major League Baseball umpire Dave Pallone gets chided by sports fans, it’s usually because of a call he made at first base back on April 30, 1988. And for that, he describes himself as fortunate.

Pallone stalled before signaling that New York Mets baserunner Mookie Wilson was safe, and the delay allowed another Met to score the winning run from third. Then-manager of the opposing Cincinnati Reds, Pete Rose, stormed the field, got into a shouting match with Pallone and ultimately shoved him twice — the confrontation is now among the more famous umpire-manager conflicts and Pallone still gets angry notes from Reds fans.

That type of abuse is better than the possible alternative, the former umpire said, considering the vitriol absorbed by other gays in today’s society for their sexual orientations.

Pallone was just a few years removed from a 10-year stint as a National League umpire when he wrote the groundbreaking 1990 book “Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball,” in which he opened up about working as a gay man in the world of pro sports.

On Thursday, Pallone is scheduled to visit the University of Southern Maine to talk to students, faculty and coaches about diversity and the importance of respecting individuals’ sexual orientations. After a series of workshops at the school during the day, the former umpire will give a free public speech at 6 p.m. at Corthell Hall in Gorham.

“I still probably hear more [insults] from the Pete Rose thing,” Pallone told the Bangor Daily News during a telephone interview Wednesday. “For me, personally, my life is a good one. Compare that to just this past week in Atlanta. A man was brutally attacked and beaten just for being gay. That’s never happened to me, but it continues to happen in 2012.

“When I go out and speak, I try and get it through the heads of our young men and women what’s happening in our country and that they can change it.”

Pallone is asked often when he thinks America will see its first openly gay active professional male athlete. He said used to venture guesses, but now just says, “I don’t know.”

“Baseball at that time was the American pastime, and people could not wrap their mind around it,” Pallone said. “I’ve heard that question many times, and each time I have an answer it’s wrong. I figured way back in 1990 that by now it would have happened. I wrote in my book that I thought it would happen by the turn of the century. That was 2001, here we are in 2012 and it hasn’t happened.”

He said he hopes to see an active male pro athlete come out of the closet in his lifetime, and he thinks he will. Make no mistake, Pallone said, there are gay men playing professional sports in America today. The public just doesn’t know who they are.

“People who say there can’t be any gay athletes in professional sports, they’re just fooling themselves — it’s just a statistically problematic thing to think about,” Pallone said. “The problem we face in our society is that it’s vilified. We’re continued to be looked at as second-class citizens in 2012, and until we have a society to change that, we’re still going to have athletes stay in the closet and not help younger athletes feel comfortable enough to come out.”

Pallone said he has received more than 400,000 letters since his book was originally published — it was recently re-published to commemorate its 20th anniversary — and many of them have been from readers who “felt like they were the only ones who were living with this fear that they’d be found out.”

The former umpire applauded Tuesday’s decision by a federal appeals court that California’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, and also the announcement last month that same-sex marriage is due to be the subject of another referendum in Maine in November.

But he said he expects the final decision on the hotly contested debate to come from the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court is going to make the decision for everybody,” he said. “We’re going to have a huge firestorm either way. The next few years is going to be very interesting to see how it plays out.”

No mention of our great successful (cough,cough) Maritime Park lol


http://www.sunherald.com/2013/05/31/4703610/mississippi-among-rich-states.html


Mississippi moves up to No. 10 in nation in economic outlook report


BILOXI -- When Gov. Phil Bryant came to Biloxi on Thursday to announce a $15 million grant for a new baseball stadium, he also said Mississippi had just been listed among the states with the best economic outlook by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

"This year, for 2013, we're in the top 10," he said. The state's No. 10 ranking is up from No. 15 in 2012 and No. 19 in 2011.

The report puts Utah at the top of the list and Vermont at the bottom, and ties lower taxes and limited government to economic success.

"With Congress locked in perpetual gridlock and the U.S. economy stuck in a lackluster recovery, state governments around the country are seeking their own solutions to the country's economic woes," the Council's Executive Summary said.

Authors Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams said states are taking different paths to prosperity.

"Some have seen magnificent success in achieving real economic recovery while others continue to struggle," the report said.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said he's been on an economic-development tour of the state to showcase defense contracting in the Pine Belt; aerospace development in the Golden Triangle; education development at the University of Southern Mississippi; and the health industry in Hattiesburg.

He called the baseball stadium "diversification of tourism" for Biloxi and South Mississippi.

The report's State of the States section shows a 44.7 percent growth in Mississippi's gross domestic product from 2001 to 2011.

The state ranked first in estate tax levied, state minimum wage, and for being a right-to-work state.

The lowest ratings were 44th for the high number of public employees and 48th for the state liability system for tort litigation treatment and judicial impartiality.

The report considered 15 policy areas over which the authors said state lawmakers have control and that are key to determining a state's economic growth.

"When a state changes policy, for better or worse," the report said, "it immediately affects the incentive structure for individuals and businesses alike, and the change in incentives directly influences the state's competitiveness."

The report said it is no accident the auto industry has left the Midwest for the South and Airbus is opening its new plant near Mobile.

"The Northeast is losing ground to the South because it has much more government control of the economy than do the Southern states," the report said.



Study:

http://www.alec.org/publications/rich-states-poor-states/

Dr. Spock.......could you translate from Vulcan.......you see these folks in MS want to build a baseball stadium because of the economic advantage to the community. Now they are going to spend almost double for the baseball park than this community over in Pensacola. They are going to build it on a parking lot owned by a casino........the casino is not going to sell the land,but it will give a rent free use of the land for twenty years. Those silly people in Pensacola got almost 40 acres of beautiful bay front park which they own,and a baseball park. In twenty years the people of Pensacola are going to have paid 2/3s of the cost paid by baseball and leaseholders, and the folks in Biloxi will be turning the ball park over to the Casino who owns the land.....still good for economics of the region as the reports have indicated.....but the taxpayers get nothing......so the folks in MS figure the economic activity alone is worth it......while in fifty years Pensacola will have buildings, a ballpark, and a beautiful park paid for and a continuing revenue flow from those buildings and ballpark.

Now over in Pensacola.....folks are worried about what they called the park.....and petty arguments between local politicians who are trying to score political points.....and a handful of people on a newspaper forum who hate the man who brought the team to Pensacola.........is it me.......or do you Vulcans talk crazy talk?

..is it me.?

Yes


I heard that over five thousand folks had tickets last night.....it must be a horrible rumor.....it cannot be true.........folks piling into a ballpark when the team is not winning.........I thought this could only happen in Chicago and Boston.......could it be folks in Pensacola are baseball fans and understand good family fun for hardly any money.......you bet they do......and all the naysayers....and all the kings men......cannot put the naysayers humpty dumpty back together......folks just keep defying their logic every day.......sorry but the ballpark is a huge.....huge success and all the MS folks have done is showcase how successful the Pensacola folks have been. You can keep trying to run around and try to put Humpty back together.....but next week folks are going to go to ball parks and kids are going to enjoy family time......and the American pastime deeply ingrained in Pensacola will keep traditions for another generation.......and those folks will thank the leaders and community members who worked so hard to make this wonderful park a reality......sorry....you are simply on the wrong side of history..........but they really do need some naysayers over in Biloxi.......because the public is not even getting a park......it is a two hour drive.....and you can go protest over in Biloxi.......

Naysayers had this great Humpty Dumpty criticism........

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

5,000 folks attended a game when the team was losing.......but with each day the fans vote with their feet.......the naysayers look pretty foolish running around Humpty.......trying to put him back together......Humpty was sure that only 900 folks would ever attend.......that folks in Pensacola would never attend a baseball game......that Mr. Studer was the devil......and yet over in Biloxi they are going to spend twice as much.....and the casino is going to own the stadium.......yep......Humpty may be a distant memory.....as fans vote with their feet and BP and Hallmark finally have to tell the truth......thank you Mr. Studer........

hallmarkgrad2 wrote:Looks like it is too late........

Damn. They weren't satisfied with just ruining the Boy Scouts and the beach, they got so uppity that they had to go and ruin baseball too.
Mark my words, the Almighty is gonna send major hurricanes to pensacola and biloxi to make us all pay for this.
So I wouldn't worry about those stadiums. They're both gonna be wiped off the map now.

2seaoat wrote:Naysayers had this great Humpty Dumpty criticism........

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

5,000 folks attended a game when the team was losing.......but with each day the fans vote with their feet.......the naysayers look pretty foolish running around Humpty.......trying to put him back together......Humpty was sure that only 900 folks would ever attend.......that folks in Pensacola would never attend a baseball game......that Mr. Studer was the devil......and yet over in Biloxi they are going to spend twice as much.....and the casino is going to own the stadium.......yep......Humpty may be a distant memory.....as fans vote with their feet and BP and Hallmark finally have to tell the truth......thank you Mr. Studer........

Buy some Wahoo tickets if you want to truly thank Studer. He wants payers not talkers. Playing arm chair quarterback is plain silly.

You dont live in Pensacola, Are not invested in Pensacola, Do not live in Florida & yet you declare false truths regardless of the Park service debt hanging over Pensacola taxpayers.

Studer could not and cannot compete with Biloxi.

Studer could not and cannot compete with Biloxi.

But is this your new construct.....your new Humpty theory.......that the folks in Biloxi are going to be more successful than Pensacola.........yes I never lived and owned property in Pensacola, but the Santa Rosa folks are filling seats.......and their green works just fine........and just because my plans got whacked does not mean my neighbors and friends are not attending games, and that you naysayers are in Pensacolalalala land.....where your desire to think everything is a failure.....somehow fills a deep psychological need to explain the world.......nope the leaders of the community and the voters hit a home run with Maritime Park, and all the folks in MS are showing Pensacola how damn successful Maritime Park was from the get go.......now you can run around trying to put Humpty together.....and yes.....I will be here having some fun......cannot help myself.......truth justice and the American way.......baseball.....it does not get any better. I will see if I can get some more glue for humpty.....I love the next logical argument of how Humpty is back together.....priceless.