I attended Wednesday's presentation by a Centre City Development Corp. consultant on the recent history of new stadium construction around the United States, basically background on how various teams and municipalities "got it done."
Here are the key points:
1. Stadiums are now too costly to finance privately by a team, or publicly by just one jurisdiction. All 11 stadiums built or renovated from 2002 on have included a mix of private and public financing, with the public part in some cases being multiple jurisdictions -- like a city and state, several counties, etc.
2. Each city is different. Officials in each town managed to make use of particular assets in their financing plans. San Diego will have to come up with its own.
3. As bad as the economy has been, some stadium projects have received financing, and more lenders are willing to take on such big projects.
4. Of the 11 stadium referendums rejected by voters -- and the Chargers project will go on the ballot -- 10 stadiums were eventually built in some manner.
The stuff presented to the CCDC was encouraging for those who want a new stadium here, but there was nothing specific presented about the Chargers plans or the proposed downtown site. The Bolts are going to have to get very creative to find a financial plan that will appeal to voters, but it can be done.
---
San Diego State men's basketball reached the big time over the weekend. Yeah, yeah, don't remind me about the 2-point loss to BYU. They gained something much better, an elite point guard who will carry the Aztecs into the future.
Coach Steve Fisher had been after LaBradford Franklin of Great Oak HS in Temecula for a while, and the kid verbally committed after taking in the crazy scene at Viejas Arena last Saturday night. From the jam-packed seats to the loud cheers to the students dressed up in white shirts, ties and bicycle helmets, Franklin was obviously very impressed with what surrounds Aztecs basketball.
On the court, he saw a team that hung right to the end with what's become an amazingly good BYU bunch that's leaving its football program in its dust. Franklin must have thought something like this, several times: "all SDSU needs is a point guard who can shoot, and they'll be a Top 25 team, too."
All that was enough, and he'll sign up in April unless another school pays him more (snicker).
Here's how his commitment pushes SDSU into the big time. Fisher for years has built his program on athletes, transfers and the forgotten. When I ran my old Web site, I wrote repeatedly that Fisher's dependence on athletes over basketball players would not push him to the top of the Mountain West, and indeed he's only won the conference regular season once in eleven seasons. Last year -- arguably his best and most accomplished team, came in fourth. This year, his athletic Aztecs, with no point guard nor true full-time center, are fifth after six conference games (and will be tied for fourth if Utah loses at Wyoming tonight). No matter how good his athletes are, they'll very rarely contend for a conference crown. Transfers are fine to a small degree but many come with issues and need to adjust to a year off. His best recruits only came to State because Fisher stuck with them while something caused others to back off: Brandon Heath's grades, Kyle Spain I think broke his leg in high school, etc.
Franklin is none of these. He's said to be a great point guard with strong on-court management skills and a good outside shot. He's coming as a true freshman and has no background issues that caused other programs to back off. His GPA is said to be 3.8.
Small time programs don't get players right out of high school like LaBradford Franklin. He's a serious basketball talent that for years, because of SDSU's complete lack of hoops tradition, Fisher couldn't get -- thus his reliance on athletes. Now he's got Franklin, whose arrival might not convert a string of NIT appearances into selections to the Big Dance, but it doesn't hurt. Now let's go get a real center next year.
---
I'm okay with the signing of journeyman Jon Garland by the Padres. One of my off-season priorities has been acquiring a front of the rotation starting pitcher, and he has a chance to be that guy. He ain't no Peavy, but he could be another Kevin Correia, which would not be so bad. If he can make 30 starts and keep his overall ERA under 3.75, GM Jed Hoyer will have struck gold. His career ERA is 4.42, but he'll have a pitcher-friendly home ballpark for the first time in his career, so such a goal is reachable.
The rotation, as I see it, looks like this: Chris Young, Correia, Garland, Mat Latos and Clayton Richard.
That's solid if Young can return to health after two injury-plagued years. There are no stoppers there unless Latos emerges, but as Black said after the Garland signing, the Padres should be able to keep games close on most nights. They ought to at least get winnable games to a bullpen led by Heath Bell and Mike Adams. That's a lot more than can be said the last couple of years.
Even if Young can't return to his old form -- and my natural skepticism says its about 50-50 -- the Padres have a bunch of young arms waiting in the wings. Okay, I'll admit it, the cynic in me also has me worried about Richard, too. I'm not sure he's all that good, but I'm willing to go into the season with him as a fifth starter with some young pups breathing down his neck.
So things aren't perfect, but they're a darn sight better than this time last year. With the Kouzmanoff trade and signing of Matt Stairs, I think this has been one heck of an off-season.
1 comment:
Great post
Post a Comment