Brian Ross

There are a lot of stadium deals out there in development, and more to come. What is so special about the city council of Albuquerque, and the pending vote by its citizens to bring AAA baseball back to 'Burque? Why should anybody in the Duke City or across the country care?

This is a cautionary tale of sports, politics, and culture that could happen in your backyard, to your home team.

Albuquerque may not be the Capital of New Mexico [Santa Fe holds that distinction. Now you can go on Weakest Link and survive one more round.], but that's about the only thing that it isn't.

Albuquerque is the population center of the state, the hub of a metroplex which stretches 140 miles from Belen on the South to Espanola/Santa Fe on the North, and the place where Bugs Bunny routinely made a wrong turn.

He's not the only one. The City Council, a pack of mayoral and gubernatorial wannabees, has taken a wrong turn or two in their dealings with the unexpected departure of the Dukes.

The Dukes, the AAA franchise of the Dodgers, and a staple of the "Duke City" for 26 years, were sold to a holding company in Portland last year before either the Pacific Coast League or the City could react. The PCL stated that they wanted to bring AAA baseball back to Albuquerque as soon as possible.

Members of the City Council, winners of the Jack Benny Tight Fist Award, questioned whether Albuquerque needed AAA baseball, or even if it needed baseball at all.

"People go to eat a hot dog," quipped one Councilman, "They wouldn't know AAA from AA or the Western League."

These ostriches may keep their heads in the sand, but their tail feathers have particularly acute readings of the political winds blowing over them. When the Mayor lined up a "Baseball 2000" advisory panel to put baseball's return on the fast track, the political winds of public opinion were not in favor of anyone lining up wholly against baseball.

So the current crusade, lead by District 8 Councilman Greg "Major" Payne, a prime mayoral wannabee, is to oppose the building of a new stadium in favor of the remodel of the current sports stadium.

A few weeks ago, I might have agreed with him. The Sports Stadium is one of this editor's home haunts. There is nothing particularly cooler than watching a monster summer moon rise over the Sandia mountains, the backdrop to the 440 mark on the center field wall.

Then PCL President Branch Rickey's wife changed my mind.

Actually, I've never met Mrs. Rickey. But by way of a parable, the persuasive PCL Prez made a point about the need for a new stadium, and the changes in baseball which die-hards like you and I probably fail to appreciate.

Mr. Rickey is a third generation baseball man. Rosin and chalk run through his veins. His expectations of a minor league baseball park, and mine as well, are a place where, well, you see baseball. If the seats squeak or the hot dogs aren't hot, it fades after you watch a new pitching prospect with a rapidly evolving slider and a sizzling fast ball.

In the new millennium, it's about more than that though. Baseball is an entertainment, and only a partial entertainment.

When Mrs. R. goes to a game, she wants to be able to go to dinner first at a decent eatery just a stone's throw from the park. She wants the neon, the modern food court, and bathrooms that don't look like they were bought second hand from a Greyhound bus station.

She's not alone. The difference between the tens of thousands of fans who come out to games today in a city like Memphis, and the thousands of the loyal at parks like the Sports Stadium, is in the nearby services.

Success loves company. A place to get a beer with your buddies after the game. A movie theater across the way for the non-fans to go and do their thing while the baseball loyal attend the Temple of Round Ball next door. Synergy.

The Sports Stadium will never have synergy. Fronted by a new business complex, the UNM Football Stadium, and the "Pit", UNM's basketball arena, there is no room to develop the kind of synergies in restaurants, shops and theaters that would make the renovated stadium a success.

Councilman Payne spins a yarn that there are other pressing public priorities.

This, of course, is ass-backwards logic. The revenues from the stadium go beyond paying back the $30M+ that it is estimated to cost. In the proper location, with restaurants, shops, a theater, night clubs, hotels and housing moving in around it, the Stadium generates taxes in myriad ways.

Taxes that could be targeted to pay for the library hours and zoo hours that Major Payne is complaining about.

This is not a speculation. Thirty-two years of history in the old stadium tell us that baseball draws in excess of 230,000 or more a year in an old, run-down stadium. We know that the Albuquerque Visitors and Conventions Bureau uses baseball to book thousands of extra room nights and events at the Convention Center during the summer.

The council, which did not want to stand up and represent either its direct citizens or the metroplex at large, has courageously left the decision up to the voters in May. They are, in large part, intent on doing anything to damage the political career of Mayor Jim Baca.

Baca has staked his political career on the drive to bring baseball, a cornerstone of the quality of life of his city, back to its citizens.

The cowardly council is betting that the citizens of Albuquerque will turn on a new stadium and the mayor.

They calculate this on their knowledge of generations-old voters (New Mexico political history dates back prior to the thirteen founding colonies of the United States) who view any change as bad, and a legion of apathetic transplants who work at places like Intel and General Mills but don't participate in local politics or local life much.

By all estimations, this special election will be close. Without a general election to bring in a broader array of voters, those pro or con will be out in force.

It is our belief, though, that America's Pastime will prevail, as will a new stadium. Most residents of Albuquerque know the miserable state of affairs of its public facilities.

If they cannot visualize what a new stadium does for the community, they have only to look at last summer's Mesa del Sol Amphitheater opening. It took Albuquerque from hosting small concerts in bad halls to being included on major artist tours.

We strongly urge citizens of Albuquerque to register to vote by May 2nd, and to participate in the special election later in the month. We also encourage the city council to work towards the development of a master plan for the area surrounding the new stadium which will bring urban renewal back to the city center.

Email your support for a new downtown to the councilors via their pages at:

http://www.cabq.gov/council/ccmeet.html

Backin' Baseball in 'Burque
A Tale of Political Intrigue and Back-Biting That Could Happen in Your Town