Sugar Land City Council on Feb. 16 will consider a Memorandum of Understanding with Opening Day Partners, LLC to provide a professional minor league baseball team and develop a stadium in Sugar Land’s Cultural/Entertainment District.
The MOU designates ODP as the city’s exclusive negotiation partner for 90-days while each party works toward more formal and binding agreements.
ODP has more than 27 years of experience in developing multi-use ballparks and successfully owning and/or operating minor league teams of all classifications.
ODP – a community-focused operator that emphasizes year-round community events and activities at their stadiums – has designed, constructed and operated 14 ballparks since 1982. ODP is led by Chairman Peter Kirk, President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Danos; and Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
Professional minor league baseball is planned to be part of a larger destination activity center for Sugar Land, providing opportunities for entertainment and recreation for Sugar Land residents, as well as attracting non-residents from the surrounding area.
“We established a vision for a cultural entertainment district within our community over a decade ago,” said Mayor James Thompson, “and we have worked tirelessly over the past several years to bring this plan closer to reality.”
A Visioning Task Force composed of a cross-section of citizens in 2007, as well as planning activities and workshops, resulted in the creation of a formal vision for a destination activity center called the Cultural/Entertainment District on land surrounding the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and University Blvd.
Three specific venues were identified for initial development – an indoor concert venue, a minor league baseball stadium and a festival site – and later supported by residents in a November 2008 special election.
During the past year and a half, Sugar Land identified a specific site, performed a market assessment, determined specific goals for a suitable venue and through a thorough public process involving formal Requests for Solicitations of Interest, identified a private sector partner to assist the city
The facility, expected to be up and running for the 2012 baseball season, is anticipated to be a flexible multi-use design that will provide the potential to support college and high school baseball tournaments, concerts and other uses.
“Communities all over the country have identified the benefits of pursuing the development of entertainment districts to promote economic development and quality of life,” said Thompson. “This is a project that combines more than a decade of citizen surveys, parks master plans, City Comprehensive Plans and Economic Development plans with the efforts of a citizen task force. We are looking forward to the possibility of working with Opening Day Partners to make our vision a reality.”
I remember a few years ago when Houston was on a spending spree like this building stadiums and arenas right and left for all these sports teams and the groups that spoke out around the community asking the same questions. Why should we be paying for all this. These are private companies and they should take the investment risk like the rest of us. After all we will be paying the high ticket prices and concessions when they open. As you already know those complaints fell on deaf ears. For some reason our elected officials like appearing at wine tasting and ground breaking ceremonies as well as seeing their names on placards that our taxes covered.
Enjoy! Personally I’d rather help out with a school or hospital.
That’s our “neocons” for you john. Gotta kept the beast fed with our taxes and bond dollars-debt or they will keep raising our taxes. Build those stadiums, museums and anything else they desire but some of our dems are in the game too now, haven’t you noticed. That’s what the 2 team tax subsidized football game appears to be about. Keeping these vendors fed, fat and happy! It doesn’t matter that we have major league baseball 20 minutes away or colleges all around, we must have more, more and more….all paid for by his & her property taxes during a recession with layers upon layers of taxing zones (MUDs, LIDs, tolling boards, Hospital districts, junior college and university zones, TIRZs, HOAs, MMDs, and of course our usual school district, county, city, etc.). I wonder if Howard and some of our “conservative” or “liberal” elected officials can think of any more creative ways to squeeze us???
Corporate welfare in the conservative Sugarland. Who would have thunk it?