Stadium dollars

Bangor City Council did the right thing when it formed an ad hoc committee to figure out whether to support building a baseball stadium: the committee recently returned an encouraging plan that calls for public and private investment.

The stadium, the potential home of the Blue Ox baseball team, has been a money question from the beginning. If it were affordable, the city would benefit during its short summer from the increased activity downtown, from having another public recreation area and the opportunity for outdoor concerts, theater and Fourth-of-July fireworks. Two concerns — where would the downpayment come from and is the Blue Ox organization a desirable partner — have been addressed by the city committee.

Bangor, according to the committee’s report, would put up no more than $2 million of the $4 million or $5 million necessary to build the stadium. The rest would have to come from private sources. The city would not offer to bond for the $2 million unless the private dollars were found. This limits the cost to the taxpayer and ensures that local, longtime members of the business community would become involved in the process. As important, it demands that the public show more than a passing interest in this venture. People of means are going to spend their own money on this project; they won’t and shouldn’t do it without community support.

The recent decision by the owners of the Blue Ox to also develop a team in New Bedford, Mass., was unsettling to Bangor. The city felt jilted. But the owners’ actions were useful in that they taught the city to look on this not through the misty nostalgia in which baseball cloaks itself, but strictly as a business decision. That is the right approach. How much money going in; how much benefit derived by the city and local businesses; how much money returned to the city.

The council is expected to decide whether to proceed with the $2 million plan Monday, Oct. 27. Councilors should support it in part as a question to residents: Are they willing to spend some of their own money to become partners in this enterprise?