The editorial page of the Free Lance-Star is less sanguine about the prospects for minor league baseball in the Fredericksburg area than the editorial page here.
While stadium projects are by and large taxpayer-soaked boondoggles, there is a unique blend that does and can work for communities, local governments, and small businesses. Location matters, the offerings at the stadium matters, and the area surrounding the stadium — including ease of access, walkable commercial, and right right sort of commercial — all adds into the most optimal leverage for local governments to reap the benefits.
Spotsylvania’s Board of Supervisors has reached a level of oddity that is reminiscent of the high growth days of the early 1990s. After blowing $9.7 million on a crony capital project without batting so much as an eyelash, a baseball stadium which cost taxpayers precisely $0 met a populist tidal wave… and succumbed to that wave:
The two supervisors maintain that either of the proposals the Suns’ Quinn offered to Spotsylvania—with up-front money toward construction—was better than any previously proposed to Fredericksburg or elsewhere. So good, they argue, that other minor league owners might lose negotiating power to squeeze concessions from other localities looking into teams in the future.
That scenario makes independent league baseball teams, such as the Waldorf, Md., Blue Crabs, more attractive to localities not interested in paying the freight for the minor league cartels.
Small problem with this analysis though. Let’s say Lidl wanted to explore locations today. Despite all of Spotsylvania’s advantages, would any large business make the investment in Spotsylvania now, given the acrimonious debate and abdication of leadership?
This is no short term victory, nevermind the hypocrisy involved with local government picking winners and losers, with subsidies for some and unrealistic expectations for others.
Minor league baseball and businesses alike would be wise to steer clear of dysfunctional localities. Spotsylvania is sadly becoming a great example of how a populist tidal wave can overcome all the advantages, and the long term impacts will sadly be felt for the next decade.
Thankfully, competing localities in the area such as Stafford and Caroline County can demonstrate the wisdom of well planned and solicitous economic development.
The adults in Spotsylvania meanwhile — Yakabouski and Skinner among them — have a decision to make when it comes to the courthouse sending mixed messages to developers and the free market, mixed messages that ultimately undermine Spotsylvania’s schools, deputies, and core services.
Moreover, some clarity needs to be exercised as to when crony capitalism is acceptable and when it is anathema, not just when the governor arrives with an offer you can’t refuse. “Subsidies for me, not for thee” is poor governance, indeed.
Spotsylvania would be well served to realize that the dichotomy in picking winners and losers vs. the responsible government rhetoric sends mixed messages that business leaders tend to avoid.
