With less than 5 months to go before the opening of the new arena, city hall has gone completely quiet on the future of Roberts Stadium. This begs the question: Why?
Why has city hall gone quiet on Roberts Stadium? Why are they not involving the public in the future of Roberts Stadium? What are their plans going forward to handle the Roberts Stadium situation? Do they even have a plan for Roberts Stadium? Do they care about the fate of our historic icon?
Over the course of the past few years, we have seen fierce opposition from local residents to the policies coming out our downtown Civic Center with the most notable project being the Wesselman Park ball fields. This right here is why city hall has no one to blame but themselves for their policies being highly unpopular with the locals.
A few weeks ago, I published a post on my Evansville Moving Forward blog talking about the need to replicate an Oklahoma City project called MAPS...
http://evansvillemovingforward.blogspot.com/2011/05/large-capital-improvement-projects-can.html
The reason why I am MAPS fan numero uno is because MAPS puts the power of large capital improvement projects in the hands of the citizens, not a handful of politicians who then give the power to people we don't even elect such as the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau.
While it may seem harsh, the truth is, our elected officials don't always know what is best for our town. This is why we have public hearings and workshops to gather ideas and input from anyone and everyone that has something to say about the project and we can then decide what the appropriate action should be. In a court of law, this is called due process.
I am very proud to live in a country where due process rules the day. Because of this, we are entitled to proper legal rights, whether it be hearings or even a full blown trial. Roberts Stadium deserves the same.
Since the new arena received the green light and the ball fields project has been considered, zero current political leaders in office have come forward to listen to the people about why they want to keep their historical icon. No hearings, no town hall meeting, and no committee have been solely dedicated to reusing Roberts Stadium.
I find this to be quite shocking given the fact that I as well as many of Rick Davis's campaign workers have gone door-to-door in the Roberts Stadium neighborhood and cannot find one single person who wants Roberts Stadium to be demolished. This isn't my stadium, it isn't your stadium, it is OUR stadium.
Roberts Stadium must be judged by the people it has taken care of these past 55 years: The people of Evansville. A committee of engineers, business analysts, political leaders, and citizens who care about Roberts Stadium must be assembled to judge its future. That is when we will begin to make progress on saving Roberts Stadium.
The ball fields project failed because its organizers failed to listen to the people. They refused to consider alternative locations and they refused to redesign the fields to make them competitive with other cities. Since the ball fields project has been discussed, I proposed building the 8 fields that replicate vintage Major League Baseball fields at Kleymeyer Park. There already is a private company that does this taxpayer free. I will match this location and design up against any location and design that the ECVB and city government has produced any time, any place, any where.
I also have a local investor who is willing to work with the city to raise the floor up and place indoor football, indoor soccer, trade shows, youth sports tournaments, mid size concerts, and minor league basketball at the facility. He has already acquired 2 of these teams and isn't interested in the new arena as it is too expensive for his type of business. Regardless of what city hall says, Roberts Stadium will not compete with the new arena.
Back in 2001, Mayor Lloyd brought us together as a city to put together a master plan for our downtown. When everyone came together, we did wonderful things. We drew up a plan for downtown that included a ballpark, a canal, a marina, a better Main Street, and yes, an arena. Now, city hall has all but scrapped our downtown master plan while deciding themselves to waste $25 million on a simple widening of Green River Road.
We cannot allow Roberts Stadium to be scrapped by only a handful of bureaucrats. To demolish Roberts Stadium without making a good faith effort to save it is a disgrace to Hank Roberts who sacrificed his political career so that Roberts Stadium could be built. If the current city hall wants to ignore the will of the people, then perhaps we shall place an asterisk by these tarnished ten years we just went through.
Sooner or later, the gavel is going to drop on what to do with Roberts Stadium. Let's hope that before it does, Roberts Stadium has gotten a fair committee comprised of those it has served over the past 55 years. Give Roberts Stadium its due process!
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