My favorite ideas for a Raleigh baseball team are not likely outcomes. I recognize that. Timeline, team name, team colors, ballpark location… there are more probable choices than my choices. Nevertheless, I think it is a worthy exercise to try out creative, fringe ideas. My favorite location for a Raleigh MLB team is the current site of St. Augustine’s University. St. Aug’s is an HBCU founded in 1867. It sits on the east side of downtown.
Let’s start with all the caveats. Caveats a mille! The university is not doing well financially. This is hardly a unique story in an era of declining demographics and enrollment for small institutions. Beyond the financial difficulties, there have been some accreditation issues. That is no small problem. The process of accreditation is relentless. Rather than get bogged down in the details of SAU, I’ll outline what could have been.
I often joke that I’m going to miss the major longevity breakthroughs by ten years or so. I’ll die at a normal 81, but my kids will live to 163. Sometimes the timing of things is just a hair off in historical terms. If MLB in Raleigh was a bit sooner there could have been a nice solution for SAU where they lease their land for 100 years and gain financial stability through the lease and the visibility an MLB ballpark would provide. I’m guessing this complex financial arrangement is not possible on our timeline. I mention this scheme because I think it is worth considering how the placement of a ballpark might do some good in preserving existing, struggling pieces of the city’s history.
Should the university’s land be available for a ballpark, there is one piece of the property that could still be preserved and supported. Saint Agnes Hospital sits on the south-easternmost part of SAU in a state of stabilized disrepair. There is still enough structure to allow for a restoration of sorts. Integrated into a ballpark complex, the site could be a nice focal point connecting the city’s growth to the area’s community and history.
Still with me on this thought experiment? The typical footprint of a ballpark structure is 10 to 15 acres. Add in parking and some plaza areas and we realistically need more like 20 acres. On the more ambitious side, there are developments like the Truist Battery in Atlanta- a full entertainment district. The Battery takes up roughly 60 acres. 10-60 acres is our range for a Raleigh ballpark.
The St. Aug property has about 100 acres total. The easiest path forward is to simply consider the undeveloped portion of that land. Buildings occupy less than half of the acreage. I can’t see the football field remaining in any plan like this- but let’s be somewhat conservative and allow the existing buildings (other than the football field) to remain for redevelopment. That still leaves a good 60 acres ready to go. The space is available.
Beyond available land, the topography is ideal. This section of town is up on a hill. An adjacent micro-neighborhood is named Capital Heights. There are views to be had of the surrounding land and the downtown skyline. A typical ballpark orientation has homeplate southwest and center field northeast. That means it’s an outfield upper level that probably gets the view of downtown. With some intentional design perhaps an upper concourse gets that view around the infield as well.
The hockey team plays on the far west side of town. A ballpark on the east side of town adds a nice symmetry to city life. In terms of overall economic development, areas east of downtown could use some extra attention and would likely benefit the most from a ballpark. There are not many residential neighborhoods inside the beltline, but St. Aug’s sits among perhaps the biggest contiguous residential area: Oakwood, Mordecai, Oakdale, North Oakwood, Capital Heights, Lions Park, etc. A good chunk of Raleigh’s downtown residents could walk to the park (it’s about 30 minutes walk from Moore Square for instance).
Oh cool, neighborhoody, so impossible to get to? I’ll acknowledge the difficulties with any downtown placement are multiple compared to sticking the ballpark in the obvious places along the highways. I think it’s worth the effort, but it would take effort. The inroads and outroads are not bad. Raleigh blvd connects straight north and south to the beltline. From the east New Bern and from the west, well that’s downtown and a slowed down Route 1.
Can we just put a ballpark out on Wade where the Hurricanes play and build more lanes on the roads and more parking? Sure, we can. I bet most of you have seen the meme about L.A. traffic and the crazy highways, “just one more lane will fix it!” However, mightn’t we take the opportunity to vastly improve our city’s infrastructure by adding a lightrail? Mightn’t we?? You prefer a raised Monorail? Okay. How about an automated individualized transit system like West Virginia University? Okay. Something. I’m not going to over-engineer a solution, but how about a simple system that runs from the airport, by the fairgrounds, by NC State, through downtown, to a ballpark, and maybe further east to the beltline where WakeMed sits?
Reviewing the benefits of a ballpark on St. Aug’s campus:
- In an alternate timeline, St. Augustine continues as a thriving HBCU.
- Views from a ballpark on a hill.
- Residential connections.
- Decent connection to transit given a downtown location.
- I could walk. Did I not mention that earlier?
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