RICHMOND VIRGINIA, BASEBALL AND GOVERNMENT WASTE

Monument Avenue

Here in the City of Monuments, the city built on 7 hills, affectionately called "Mecca" by those of us who love Richmond and feel connected to it in our souls, we have a problem. The problem is government, and unfortunately our problem is replicated all over America: fat cat politicians recklessly spending our money, instead of being good stewards of assets that are not their personal fiefdoms.


Nothing illustrates this phenomena more than the current debate in Richmond over building a new baseball stadium. Richmond finds itself with an extra $62 million in cash due to a payout by a toll road bond authority. The $62 million should be used to pay down debt: period. Mayor Jones has devised an elaborate plan to spend the money with $50 million going towards a new baseball stadium. The once conservative Richmond Times Dispatch seems to be on board, a groundswell of support seems to be quaking, yet no one, to my knowledge, has even asked the question: what business does the city have building and owning a ball park? There is the usual blah, blah, blah mindless mush about civic pride and "keeping up" with other southern cities, but why is it the responsibility for our local government to build and own a baseball stadium to be used by a private business?

The Diamond

Baseball is a business, just like manufacturing widgets. We have a Double AA baseball team, the Flying Squirrels. ( I always thought The Richmond "Goober Peas" or "Snobs" would have been a better name). The Squirrels produce a product, people pay to attend games and buy hot dogs. It is a business, pure and simple. Why does the government fund the physical plant for a baseball team and not the physical plant for my widget factory? I have been engaged in entrepreneurial activities in Richmond for 25 years. Perhaps no other region our size in America has the business talent and financial resources as can be found in central Virginia (home to an amazingly diverse business climate). If baseball makes sense as a business enterprise, the private sector will build a stadium.  $50 million ain't jack for a city/region that has seen billions of dollars of private sector capital investment over the past decade. The city should focus on fixing potholes and reducing red tape and taxes, let capital investment come from the private sector where  people risk their own money. The city should sell our existing facility, ( the Diamond, pictured above) to private enterprise and pay down even more debt.

Richmond Is A Beautiful City

If this is about civic pride, I'd be a lot prouder of my city if it was run properly. Richmond's beauty, architecture and history is plenty to be proud of. I for one don't need a rinky-dink municple facility run by government flunkies and apparatchiks to enhance my civic pride. However, if others feel differently, raise the $ through a public offering, which would only need $39 from each citizen of the region to build the facility debt free.


I love baseball, (see my June 2011 article (BASEBALL, FATHER'S DAY AND AMERICA), BUT I LOVE LIMITED GOVERNMENT MORE!!!!