There is something of a culture war happening around Tiger Stadium in Detroit. As the old stadium is demolished and removed, a group of preservationists want to keep some portion standing, presumably for the sake of all the small children in 2030 who will have never heard of Tiger Stadium. A noble cause, I suppose, but one that's struggled to gain much leverage against the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. Still, the preservationists won't go down without a fight. All they need is ... a ton of money!
After about two hours of haggling between preservationists and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp, Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. sent both groups into a private room and asked them to work something out. The result was a new agreement in which preservationists must create escrow accounts of $300,000 and $69,000 by Aug. 8, when the issue will be brought back to council. The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, a preservation group, also must get complete funding for a museum in place by March 1, 2009, under the agreement. The amount needed is about $15.6 million. The plan includes preserving the baseball diamond and 3,000 seats, and building a museum.As new FanHouser Craig notes, that seems unlikely, since the Conservancy has had plenty of time to try to raise that money and hasn't been able to do so. Will the sudden disappearance of Tiger Stadium shock people into action? Maybe. People like nostalgia, but they also love economic growth. And shopping malls. Ooh, can we get a Aunt Anne's pretzel? So good, they'll make your insides hurt!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-30-2008 @ 1:23PM
tipcpup01 said...
You know, I'm all for moving forward, but I tell ya what:
Baseball is always talking about losing ground in the inner city, losing appeal with black America, etc. Leave the field and some stands, add the museum and some community space, then turn it into a public service project for the city, getting kids involved in baseball and off the streets and all that rhetoric-sounding jazz..
You get history preserved. You get a poor city some public space. And you have a beacon of baseball hope for a slice of America that could really use it.
I say the Tigers, MLB, or even some players make this happen!
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7-30-2008 @ 6:55PM
houchens said...
If a museum is created in part of the old Tiger Stadium, I hope the people in Detroit will give it better care than they do the Detroit Zoo. The zoo has been a tourist must in Detroit for years, but it sure looks shabby and run down these days. Very sad. Another of Kwame's accomplishments.....
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