The second letter in today's Billings Gazette got the goat of even an easygoing fellow like me. The writer says, "After seeing the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium, Cobb Field doesn't come close!" The statement might carry some weight if the writer did not admit that she (he?) had never seen a game in Cobb Field.
I've never seen the Yankees play in Yankee Stadium. But I've seen the Mets play in Shea, the Astros play in Houston, the Rangers play in Arlington, the Giants play in San Francisco, the A's play in Oakland, the Twins play in Minnesota and the Royals play in Kansas City, not to mention minor league games in venues ranging from Medicine Hat to South Texas.
I'd put an evening in Cobb Field up against any of those experiences. Compared to the big leagues, the general rule at Cobb Field is that you get twice the fun for a third (or less) of the price, all without fretting that a big chunk of your ticket price goes to keeping pampered, rich athletes pampered and rich. And the view at Cobb tops them all.
Beyond a certain level of minimum competence, paying extra to see better baseball just isn't worth it. To me, it's good baseball if:
1. Catchers can make the throw to second.
2. Pitchers can get the ball over the plate.
3. Third basemen can scoop up the slow roller. And
4. The infield can turn the double play.
Beyond that, the differences between players boil down to fractions of inches too fine for me to distinguish.
The writer suggests that if the Cincinnati Reds want a new stadium here they should build it themselves. That makes about as much sense as telling Steven Spielberg that if he wants his movies to play in Billings, he should build his own theater. It ain't going to happen.
The writer concludes by offering his (her?) services as city administrator. New rule: The city of Billings shall hire no city administrator who hasn't spent at least one evening watching a game at Cobb Field. If you haven't done that, you don't know Billings.
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9 comments:
In the local daily last year didnt some "expert" say that it takes a years for a city to go from zero population to 100,000 but one it reaches 100,000 the jump to 200,000-250,000 only takes about 5 years? If that is correct, the 150,000 people headed here are going to demand a library with a couple of branches, a new ball park, a football stadium, several high schools and a lot more....
Will 17th and Grand be part of the "inner City"
Do the Mustangs generate revenue in our economy or not?
If they are actually benefitting the community, build the stadium, and if they are nothing more than paid entertainment, don't build it.
Building them a stadium would be like building CARMIKE a new theatre, and hoping the theatre-goers spend money somewhere else while they were in the neighborhood.
Since I'm responsible for quoting a lot of experts in the local daily, I have to say that I don't recall anyone having said in the Gazette that cities invariably jump from 100,000 to 200,000 in five years. As far as I know, all forecasts from the experts are that Billings will continue to grow moderately, say 2 to 3 percent a year for many years to come. No matter how many people come, however, I doubt we'll have many of those amenities because our medieval system of taxation relies almost exclusively on property owners, and you can't go to them every couple of years and ask a few million more.
5 years might not be correct. As I recall, the article said that many businesses and franchises were waiting until Billings hit the magical number of 100,000 and that growth to 250,00 would be very rapid.
2-3% does sound more reasonable.
A builder in town made an interesting comment last week, " wait until the bubble bursts in Bozeman."
Anonymous, I can't vouch for any specific numbers, but I'm sure I have quoted experts who have said that 100,000 people is sort of a tipping point that, in effect, causes growth to occur just because growth has occurred.
That's been a figure that's been in play for many decades. But greater Billings surpassed that number a few years ago and the growth has remained the same. Granted, in-city limits is still under it, but look around us.
Living here in a big-league city (the Phoenix metro area, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks), I can tell you something about the difference from the bigs and the so-called "bushes."
The cheapest seats at Bank One Ballpark (soon to be renamed Chase Field, thanks to another bank merger) are two sections for $1 a seat. To get those buck seats, you have to be at the ticket window at least three hours before game time (they are not available any other way), and you must go in to the park as soon as you buy them (the ticket windows open two hours before game time, but it's best to be early to get the seats closest to the front; you have to take the seat they give you, period) to avoid scalping. The seats in question are at the ends of the upper deck, right by the foul poles, and while they're not bad seats, your view of the area where the foul line reaches the fence is obstructed, and you can't see one of the bullpens unless you're sitting in the front row and have the stomach to look straight down.
Other seats in the upper deck range from $8-$20 per game. For seats with views comparable to those at Cobb Field, the price is between $100-$350 per seat per game. (You could get season tickets for the Mustangs for several years for that price.)
Add to that the cost of parking your car (the cheapest is $5 a pop, and you have to walk two miles to the park), $5 bottles of beer or sodas, $3 hot dogs, hamburgers or nachos, $5 programs, and the assorted souvenirs available at the Team Shop, a family of four can be out a mortgage payment for a single game. Add to that the fact that even though the park has a retractable roof and air conditioning (or else there is no way you could possibly have baseball in AZ in the summer), the metal roof holds heat very well--which is one reason why if you ever see a D-Back home game on TV, you'll notice that the upper deck (where the least expensive seats are) is usually empty. (Temperatures near the top of the stadium have been recorded at around 120 degrees--for a night game.) Also, when the roof is closed for A/C purposes, the panels along the north wall are closed as well, so you can't see downtown Phoenix or the mountains. (And the way the Snakes have been playing the past couple of years, you need all the distractions you can get.)
While Cobb Field is a wonderful park (and any replacement--in my view--should be built on the same site, with the view of the rims), it is old. The grandstand is of the same age, and material as the now departed east stands at Daylis Stadium. The many layers of paint on the place are the only thing holding it together, and if it were owned by a private company, it would've been condemmed by the city years ago.
The longer Billings dithers over what to replace Cobb with, the more expensive any replacement will be (given the cost of the spring training fields around the Phoenix area, my best guess is that any new park will cost at least $10 million, and that's a bare bones park). If Billings was a city where there were several major companies that could buy the Mustangs and build the park themselves, it could be done with private money, but then, the owners might not allow Legion Ball, or else charge the Legion a high rent for the use of the park. and I don't think there are enough folks with deep pockets to build such a baseball palace. So, whether we like it or not, it's up to the taxpayers to come up with the funding (BOB was built using a 1/4 cent county sales tax--an option that is not available in Montana, and which got a local county commissioner a bullet in the behind from a disgruntled taxpayer--and the team had to pay for any cost overruns, which is why they're gotten rid of most of their best players)--or else there may be a stadium collapse (not a question of if, but when), or Baseball will finally say enough and refuse to allow the Mustangs to play there (the Reds have managed to get waivers for the club for years, even though Cobb doesn't come close to the minimum standards that Baseball requires of minor league parks), which means the Ponies will join the ranks of the Butte Copper Kings as memories.
And if I may be so bold, may I make two suggestions for any replacement:
1. When a new park is built, a replacement for the pool should be built somewhere in the north part of North Park (how some child involved in horseplay hasn't run into traffic on North 27th, I'll never know), and
2. Name the new park Ed Bayne Diamond at Athletic Park (Bob Cobb is long gone, and pretty much forgotten; as an even nicer touch to honor the city's proud Legion baseball heritage, change the address of the park to 19 Dave McNally Square).
Kirk Dooley, Mesa, AZ
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