Wizards and Dragons
News 15 ran a story on how a new baseball park in Dayton helped that town. The comparisons they tried to make between Dayton had and Fort Wayne were full holes.
The issue of building a new stadium is based on economics. With that in mind the two cities are on two different planes of existence.
The metro area of Fort Wayne is approximately 620,000 people. The Dayton metro area has around 950,000. The disparity in populations creates completely different economic dynamics.
Dayton is also sandwiched between two major cities along the axis of major interstates. They are located about 50 miles north of Cinncinatti and 70 miles from Columbus. The close proximity to both of these cities creates a lot of cross traffic and the potential of day-trips by their residents. Fort Wayne's closest neighbor is Indianapolis at 130 miles.
Dayton's team also gets more traffic from Cincinnati to games because the Dragons are an affiliate of the Reds. I don't think Fort Wayne gets a lot of people coming from San Diego to see the Wizards.
There is also the aspect that Dayton brought a new team to town and didn't have a facility that would work. It would be fiscally irresponsible for the city to build a new stadium when it has one in fine condition. If the team was consistently filling the seats to capacity then things might be different. Taxpayers shouldn't have to shell out more money due to a lack of foresight, planning, and organization.
In the end I think that News 15 tried too hard to make comparisons between the situation in Fort Wayne and the one once held by Dayton. The only thing they have in common is that their teams belong in the same league.
The issue of building a new stadium is based on economics. With that in mind the two cities are on two different planes of existence.
The metro area of Fort Wayne is approximately 620,000 people. The Dayton metro area has around 950,000. The disparity in populations creates completely different economic dynamics.
Dayton is also sandwiched between two major cities along the axis of major interstates. They are located about 50 miles north of Cinncinatti and 70 miles from Columbus. The close proximity to both of these cities creates a lot of cross traffic and the potential of day-trips by their residents. Fort Wayne's closest neighbor is Indianapolis at 130 miles.
Dayton's team also gets more traffic from Cincinnati to games because the Dragons are an affiliate of the Reds. I don't think Fort Wayne gets a lot of people coming from San Diego to see the Wizards.
There is also the aspect that Dayton brought a new team to town and didn't have a facility that would work. It would be fiscally irresponsible for the city to build a new stadium when it has one in fine condition. If the team was consistently filling the seats to capacity then things might be different. Taxpayers shouldn't have to shell out more money due to a lack of foresight, planning, and organization.
In the end I think that News 15 tried too hard to make comparisons between the situation in Fort Wayne and the one once held by Dayton. The only thing they have in common is that their teams belong in the same league.
posted by Indiana Pundit at 11:48 PM
2 Comments:
Well put, Linda!
Guess that's why they showed the report at the meeting yesterday. It won't happen because of people who don't want change. Let's just keep things like they are. Dull, drab and no ecomonic growth!
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