Mayor says stadium has support

Still got the ball dreams even after the Golf HOF fiasco? If it is such a sure thing then let Mr.Ripken finance the stadium for a return of the proceeds.

right on iletuknow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The GGHoF was an exclusive club with limited appeal and use. If you take a look at Lions Field in North Augusta, you'll see the multiple use opportunities of a stadium. Specifics need to be promoted so the "vision impaired" can grasp what a downtown stadium can offer.

Deke is LYING he thinks people are supporting this stadium, Deke turn this alose, building a stadium downtown is not good.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but do you seriously think I will want to support your stadium when our schools are a priority? I understand jobs are necessary too, but how many jobs will stadiums give us and how many people are going to be needing training for those jobs and who will foot the bill?

Another misuse of taxpayers dollars. How come Augusta is always broke when its time to raise homeowners taxes yet they have money to throw away on projects no one wants.
Whats wrong with the old stadium? Pleanty of parking, room for expansion, easily acessable from anywhere in the CSRA.
Maybe just another way for Disgusta to be number one in the
worse planned citys.

DEKE HAS JUMPED RIGHT IN THERE WITH DUMB" DUMBER" & DUMBER. I Heard he hired David Cannon and Buddy Dallas to watcch the money. So everything will be fine.

Patricia, what are the specifics that this "vision impaired" needs to see? The article says that the stadium will "support" 900 jobs. What are they? What does "support" mean?

$31 million could go a long way toward fixing Richmond County streets and roads. This is what I would support my tax money going toward. Issues such as the county funding the MCG purchase of Gilbert Manor and the recent Hyde Park money spent have convinced me that this commission ad mayor are not appreciably better than anything we've had in the past.
Concentrate on the infrastructure. After that we can have toys.

Told you so.

If the current stadium never gets to capacity and it's about a mile or so away from the proposed new one, where have all these new attendees been hiding.. and who the heck are they? Did anyone even ask the people of Augusta if they want this.. the people that is.. not the rich businesses or the Sports Council, the Visitors Center. These are all people who get paid by the State, of course they're going to vote yes. I vote to get booths down on the Common every first Friday with ten or so major issues facing the Major and Commissioners and get people to cast their vote at the booths. That way we know the people are having their voices heard, and it's not just another 'great' idea of a commissioner or their brother-in-law who happens to have a construction business. The Golf Hall of Fame is a prime example of 'not what the people wanted' and it's sat there losing money when they could have easily been using it for something else in the meantime - you should never have charged people to visit, should have just set up some vendors in there instead. Ask the people who live and work here, the ones you want to spend money - and do it out in the open! Publicize!

Good idea, but it would mean about 20 million would have to be allocted directly. This should be put on the next SPLOST along with the Miller Theater and let the voters decide.

So it could support as many as 900 jobs and as little as??? What 9 or 10? Let's just put our money in a big wind machine and blow it out into the river. You can't fill the stadium that you have. Which, I might add, is brand new!! This is poor management of tax dollars. Use that 30 million to renovate the downtown businesses and old homes downtown. Once you revitalize downtown and make it safe for everyone and start filling up the other ballpark then you can talk about a riverfront one on down the road. Augusta is well known for putting the cart before the horse.

It's too late for building big things now. The economy is shot. Watch nothing of significance will be built in the the next 20 years. We missed the opportunity for a new stadium.

Good Grief! Before anything along the lines of a stadium or trolley car or canal, whatever, should even be CONSIDERED - the downtown area needs to be cleaned up!!! I love downtown,everything about it, especially the architecture. It has a wonderful feel, but it is empty other than a handful of college -aged clubs and a sprinkling of restaurants here and there. Other than the weekends, there is not much going on. The streets and sidewalks need cleaning, better lighting at night, and many, many old store fronts need to be cleaned up. The property owners need to lower their ridiculous rents to attract enough businesses and liven the place up everyday of the week. Jimminy, crawl before you walk, Deke. Minor league baseball is just not a big enough draw to justify that much money. Clean it up and fill it up with interesting shops, and make it safer before you start in on bigger things.

When our fine Mayor makes comments like this, I wonder if he has ever driven on Reynolds, or Bobby Jones! If the Mayor would take a drive from SA, he would discover that there is no access to Reynolds comming from NA. The only access is across 5th st bridge, which is about to close for safety reasons and I doubt it could handle the tarffic. He still hasn't said where everybody visiting the TEE center, The stadium and other fine attraction will park. If he is so sure this is a winner then he should be getting the hill people to support and fund it.

What TEE center? They are using the TEE center money to make up for the "free" bus ride fiasco.

Typical Augusta. Wasting money on projects that never work.
Why not spend a few dollars and try to keep Castleberry's open?
This is a much better use of tax dollars.
This would be money spent on our town. NOT revenue sent to an out of town owner.

I used to think Deke had Augusta's interest at heart. Boy how stupid was I. Just another politician. Well, I guess when you make a deal with the Devil to get your job, you eventually have to settle up.
Who going to run in the next Mayor's race.
Let's start now looking at their money trail.

Mayor Deke and all the "powers that be" the first order of business should be to bring in companies willing to hire folks whose places of employment are no longer in business...How can anything or anyone prosper when there are no jobs with which people can spend money in order to support the shops and or arena/stadium?

"The Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Augusta Sports Council and Augusta Tomorrow" may all support a new stadium, but what about the taxpayers of Augusta-Richmond County? As one of those taxpayers I can think of many more important things that need to be taken care of first!

In reply to attracting businesses, a busy downtown helps attract businesses and people. Volkswagen was looking for a site for their new plant, they passed up Huntsville and others (which would have been cheaper and had more engineering talent) for Chattanooga because they liked its downtown and thought the city was more vibrant.

Also, Augusta's economy won't be effected by the economic downturn as much because so much of Augusta is based on the government. (Ft. Gordon, MCG, SRS) But that also means we didn't boom like other cities with larger private employers.

There goes the neighborhood!

Why can't Augusta support ANYTHING! Why do we elect a Mayor? Do you people acutally think he's going to lead us in the wrong direction? I am from Chattanooga and I witnessed the downtown revitilization first hand....guess what? It started with a downtown baseball stadium on the river....

I recently moved here from Greensboro, where they recently built a brand new ballpark and it is amazing. If anyone thinks that the current stadium down by the lake is "brand new" they need to head up to Greensboro and see what new really is. We need a facility that the city can be proud of.

Why all the negativity? Do you think that Ripkin and his people would have personally paid for the feasability study and already put up money if this was a bad idea for the city? If this is a burden on the city, then the Ripkin group would not benefit at all. Stop being so short sighted everyone! Nothing ever gets changed in this town becuase everyone is afraid. A downtown stadium is step one to making Augusta a desirable place to live. And for all you people who say that parking is the biggest issue are ignorant. There is nothing i love more than walking to my car after a game in the current stadium with my kids and having to go next to the low income housing at 10:30 to get my car. Parking can only improve downtown.

Shocking that all of the naysayers are at it again. I guess these are the same yahoos who rushed to get gas this past weekend and drove up our prices. If you actually went to games our family does, you'd see that more and more people are going to games. Also, this project is aimed to get the fans to stay downtown to eat, drink and shop before & after games. These people would help the businesses downtown which in turn helps the economy. I think the Mayor has done a great job. Keep it up Deke!!

You can build it, put in gold plated seats with plush cushions but if there are not any new stable companies hiring people who in turn by "things" what is the point?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see it built, but the money is not there nor is it coming for many years. Have you seen the tax revenues? They are dropping, the population base is decreasing and the county is having trouble paying for current departments. Bad timing unfortuneately.

The money for these projects has to come from somewhere, and IMO the Augusta-Richmond County taxpayers will end up being the ones that are stuck. There are plenty of things that are needed, but can not be provided by the Augusta-Richmond County Government due to already existing budget shortfalls. If these projects are such a good investment then let the private sector pay for them.