Local columnist David Climer is never shy to rain on the parade, and it's one of the reasons I value his cold shower commentary. Too much sportswriting has devolved into either goggle eyed cheerleading or the cast-the-first-stone type of pathos you'd expect at a Tea Party rally.
So, as I said, it's good for guys like Climer and Joe Biddle to keep us grounded, and most Nashville sports fans, myself included, are acutely aware of the glass ceiling precariously above our noggins, whether it's the Titans barely sniffing .500, the Commodores looking at another season sleeping at the bottom of the SEC trough, or the Predators not making it out of the first round of the playoffs. (I would add that, all of the disasters of the last decade non withstanding, the members of Big Orange country, many of whom live in Middle Tennessee, seem able to convince themselves if no one else of their football supremacy. It's the kind of faux confidence you would expect from Fox News viewers or folks who drink light beer by the case. Oh wait...)
Anyway......Looks like there is a new pickle for us to ponder. The Brewers will soon be out of their contract with the Nashville Sounds, and the ailing Greer Stadium is widely considered an unacceptable home for a triple A affiliate. With no immediate plans to construct a newer baseball field, Climer alerts us in today's Tennessean to the very real possibility that Nashville could see its ball club downgraded to double A status, if not lost outright. Something worth thinking about as summer draws to a close.
When a new ownership group bought the Nashville Sounds in 2008, it spent $2.5 million on improvements to Greer Stadium.
It was lipstick on a pig. And everybody knew it — the owners, the players, the fans.
Greer Stadium opened in 1978. It is one of the oldest stadiums in Triple-A baseball. And even with the multi-million dollar improvements — which co-owner Frank Ward admitted was "a Band-Aid" — it is showing its age.
With Greer Stadium far past its prime and with no major movement on construction of a new facility in the downtown area, Nashville baseball is at yet another crossroads.
Get ready for change. The Milwaukee Brewers, whose Triple-A affiliate has called Nashville home since 2005, are expected to leave for greener pastures — and a nicer stadium — after this season. Beginning in early September, Major League Baseball has a
30-day window for its franchises to negotiate player-development contracts with affiliates. The likely landing spot for the Brewers' Triple-A team is Oklahoma City.
It is unclear which major-league team will step in to align itself with Nashville for its Triple-A team. There are 13 teams whose player development contracts with Triple-A affiliates expire after this season.
Branch Rickey, president of the Pacific Coast League of which the Sounds are a member, emphasized that Nashville is not in danger of losing its Triple-A status in the short term.
"There is not a single person in his right mind in the Pacific Coast League that thinks Nashville is less than a Triple-A market," he said. "Nashville is one of the most prestigious markets in all of minor league baseball.
"Nashville's not losing anything.
Nashville is going forward, whether it is retaining the Brewers' affiliate or not."
But Rickey acknowledges that aging Greer Stadium is a source of concern.
"Is the Pacific Coast League moving out of Nashville? No. That's the furthest thing from our minds," he said before adding:
"But we have a challenge."
Nobody wants to say it, but there is the distinct possibility that at some point Nashville could lose its Triple-A baseball identity if a new stadium is not constructed. And while slipping back to Double-A ball might not seem like a big deal to many residents, it would be a blow to Nashville's sports credibility.
Certainly, a city that serves as host to both NFL and NHL franchises does not pin its sports identity on whether its baseball team plays in Triple-A or Double-A. But since the Sounds moved up to Triple-A in 1985, backsliding to a lower classification would be a loss.
Another way of looking at it: The Sounds hit the field at Greer Stadium in 1978 as a Double-A franchise. If Greer Stadium remains home base, the Sounds might eventually revert to Double-A status.
Let's face it: Greer Stadium is no longer the premier baseball facility in town. Although its seating capacity is far less, Hawkins Field at Vanderbilt offers far more ambiance, as does Dugan Field at Lipscomb.
When the Sounds were an affiliate of the New York Yankees in 1980-84, the late George Steinbrenner occasionally visited town and once referred to Greer Stadium as "quaint" and "a throw-back." Since then, however, quaint has given way to cracked concrete in the concourses. The guitar-shaped scoreboard may be a throw-back, but it lacks many of the bells and whistles of newer models.
The solution, of course, is to build a state-of-the-art minor league park on the banks of the Cumberland River. A number of cities have found great success with downtown stadiums, both in terms of attendance and economic impact on nearby restaurants and nightspots.
Indeed, there has been talk of a downtown stadium for about 15 years.
Last November, the mayor's office confirmed that three sites were under consideration as locations for a new park. Sounds management hired a real estate attorney, a public relations firm and an architectural firm to formulate plans for a stadium.
Of course, the devil is in the detail. And the biggest detail is money. In these difficult economic times, a big-ticket item like a new baseball stadium is a tough sell.
But how many more layers of lipstick can you put on that pig?
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