UPDATE: City and consultants add ballpark meeting not on Election Night

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington has scheduled a second public meeting on the proposed baseball stadium after WWAY raised questions about why the first meeting was slated for Election Night.

With a huge red, blue and yellow Atlanta Braves logo at the top, the city announced on its website today that it will host a meeting Tuesday to discuss a potential ballpark to be built in Wilmington and to get input on general areas of where a “publicly-owned baseball stadium” might be located.

The city, along with National Sports Services, the management firm the city hired, scheduled the meeting for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. That’s an hour before the polls close in the North Carolina Primary Election. The city has postponed City Council meetings before when they fell on election days.

A city spokeswoman said the meeting was scheduled by a team from National Sports Services and a team from the city on a date where it would not conflict with other meetings and so that there could be two meetings in the month of May. According the calendar on the city’s website, the only other meeting scheduled for next week is the Historic Preservation Commission on Thursday. There are no other meetings scheduled before the City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, May 15.

After WWAY questioned the scheduling of the meeting on such a busy political night, the city announced a second meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in City Council Chambers. Wednesday’s session will begin with attendees viewing a recording of Tuesday’s presentation. Following the taped replay, attendees will be able to provide input on potential sites for a minor league baseball stadium in Wilmington.

To our knowledge, this is the first time the city has called it a “publicly-owned stadium.” At a news conference a few weeks ago, representatives from Mandalay Baseball Properties and the Atlanta Braves said they were putting together a plan to help finance the stadium.

The city and National Sports Services will also talk about potential locations for the ballpark. However the release says they won’t talk about “specific locations.”