But no never means never in the stadium game.
The North Carolina Legislature has decided it doesn’t want to put up money to build a Major League Baseball stadium somewhere in the state. North Carolina politicians wanted to position the state as a contender for a Major League Baseball expansion franchise. There are two problems. Major League Baseball is not in an expansion mode at the moment and there is no state money available in the short term to build a stadium in Raleigh. MLB has a major hurdle to overcome. There are labor negotiations with the players ongoing with the industry’s collective bargaining agreement ending in December. North Carolina has some stiff competition for an expansion franchise if MLB does go through with expansion plans as politicians in Utah, Vancouver, British Columbia and Sacramento are ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a baseball venue. The ownership of the NC Courage of the National Women’s Soccer League wants a new facility and it wants public money to pay for the stadium’s construction. It is getting expensive for North Carolina taxpayers to support big time sports.
The National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes franchise owner Tom Dundon is getting public money to renovate Raleigh’s arena and putting up a village around the venue. Three years ago, Dundon suggested that Major League Baseball ought to consider Raleigh for an expansion team. In the past MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has suggested that Charlotte might be a good spot for an expansion team. This is not the first time someone has suggested putting an MLB team in the Wake County region. In the late 1990s, Don Beaver attempted to buy and move the Minnesota Twins franchise to a publicly funded stadium in Greensboro if voters said yes. The voters rejected the stadium plan in 1998. In the stadium game, no never means never.
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