Do you think the City of Wilmington should spend more than $400,000 to work on negotiations for a ballpark?

It's a done deal.
People were defeated when the convention center went up with no Hotel as had been proposed, when that was the only way it would succeed.
The Council knows it's a done deal.
The lingering Skyway bridge is a done deal.
The Port of Southport is a done deal.
It's sad to say, but that's it, it will happen, its gonna happen.
It may take longer than they want, but they will get what they want.
Vote them all OUT and send a message.
The only thing that matters to the council, is that Downtown benefits.
Not the outskirts, but DOWNTOWN.
Vote em out, every one, and get some responsible taxpayers to replace them. Not Builders, real estate salesmen, but regular "joe" residents that care for the entire city, not just the "Miracle Mile" crime free zone on the river.
And those in the county, but not in the city, get ready, they are coming for your dollars next with annexation.

If you're not interested in coughing up even more tax dollars than you already are, you are now in a lose-lose scenario. You'll either wind up paying for a stadium you don't want or a $400,000 "study" you don't want. One would think that the first order of business would be a referendum on spending $400,000 for the study, then proceeding from there. That's called democracy.

Being from the northeast and having spent a few years in the local beach area, $400k boggles my mind.
My city has a minor league professional team.
Here is how things started. The city added stands, and fixed up the high school baseball field.

After 2 years and success of baseball team within the city, the city built a field for the team, as well as the college Umass Lowell
What type of club is Wilmington attempting to recruit ? I highly doubt a AAA team, (too far from big league club) AA, ?? This too may be too far big league club. A, summer league, these are the type the Braves would allow Wilmington to have.
Do this, have team play at UNCW, how do you know team will be a success, If you build a park, and team leaves, which does happen, taxpayers are left holding bag for something elected officials never looked into, asked other cities who have teams, and / or how they did it.
Do not be stupid, wait for the team to sign to play in your area before you build, explore what you have already. Building a field before you know baseball is a success, to you, and small businesses in the area is fiscal suicide
If you don't work with other cities of your size, which are home to teams, similar to what you are attempting to recruit is very poor governing and property owners are left holding an expense city government never did the work of what is needed, how other cities did it

The only thing community gets, is an increase in taxes, (property)
P.S. Have UNC aid in the cost, you will have a summer league team, their season starts June 22th. UNCW can use solely during school year

Taxpayer money should not be spent on this at all, due diligence or not! If it were going to be anything other than a money sink, then private investors would have been all over it a long time ago, and taxpayers would never have been asked to fund it. Rick Catlin knows what it takes to make a buck and be profitable, and he says this is a bad idea. That should have been enough for the city to wash their hands of the deal.

With all the money problems this area is facing, the last thing we need to spend money on is a baseball team that hasn't worked the last two times it was tried. GET REAL PEOPLE!!!!

The developers, landowners and other potential beneficiaries should be stepping up to meet the costs of planning this project, NOT the TAXPAYERS.

We taxpayers are already paying the price of the failure of local government, both city AND county, populated by members of BOTH parties, Democratic and Republican who didn't serve the population that put them in office, who instead LICKED THE BOOTS of property developers who lined their pockets during the real estate market expansion getting away without providing needed infrastructure for the folks they sold to.

That pricetag that we taxpayers have to look at every day is called the Cape Fear Public Utilities Authority.

Where are the finaincial statements from the operations of the Convention Center. How is that debt being serviced?

Four hundred thousand dollars for "due diligence".... Who is going to be on the gravy train to collect this? What law firm? Which investment advisory firm? Which bond underwriter???

If the city council and the mayor truly cared what the people wanted, they wouldn't waste the taxpayer's money for the study. I believe if they were to put this issue on the ballot tomorrow, that the people of Wilmington would vote it down. With all the layoffs that have happened over the past few years, the city should only be spending money on necessities, not desires. Have you ridden the streets of Wilmington much lately. I was there a couple of weeks ago and I believe the roads are worse there than they are in Shallotte. Wilmington has a lot more important fish to fry than a $400,000 study for something that the people don't want.

A tax increase is coming.

Is anyone listening? Do our children need any money? How about their teachers? OK so maybe those are county expenses but could the city let's say create some grants with $300,000 of that cash? I mean with roughly 30% of the adult population nationwide illiterate what phrase works more in the long haul, "play ball" or "I can read!"?Grandma says start out like you can hold out. How much will the payoffs be compared to the payout? Will we value both? How about spend a full million and do a long-range impact study? Don't just "show me the money." We need it all to make good cents sense. Remember the Kinston Indians? And how about the phrase, "the straw that broke the camel's back?" What kind of harbor experience will the flora and fauna be getting? I'll hush for the time being but Grandma knows more than she gets credit for and maybe she should have a seat on that consideration committee. While you've got the check book out, cut HER a check.

It's what you do when you take a professional approach to a project of this magnitude. Were you critics thinking the process would be done by the flip of a coin? The information required (good or bad) can only come from professionals from all aspects of the development and they get paid for the service.