Majestic Tiger Stadium in all its former glory

Last call for ideas on the future of Tiger Stadium, folks — half-baked, all-baked, completely farcical, far-fetched or otherwise — please report to Detroit City Council. Last call, everyone, last call. Your time is nearing an end.

In the wake of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s recent call to demolish the hallowed former playing ground for the Detroit Tigers (in the hopes of a future developer building condos and stores on the site) Detroit City Council is nearing the end of its review of all ideas previously-proposed for the area – and more specifically – reasons as to why they were rejected.

The move came on the heels of two more proposals coming forward late last week, including one put forth by Avanti Press Inc. that would see the greeting card manufacturer move it headquarters from downtown Detroit to the renovated ballpark site.

Essentially, the on-again, off-again end-is-nigh forecast for the former Briggs Stadium and Bennett Park is coming down to a chicken-and-the-egg scenario: do you demolish first and seek projects later? Or do you secure projects first and then get out the wrecking ball?

“Let’s once and for all get this answered,” Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel was quoted as saying in the Detroit Free Press earlier this week. The Tigers have long-since moved on from Tiger Stadium, having played its last game there in 1999. The news was viewed as positive to both the Navin Field Consortium, a group looking to preserve part of the stadium for minor league baseball, as well as Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, a group looking to at least save part of the structure for future generations.

Detroit City Council could vote on the Kilpatrick-led initiative as early as today. All of us here at BaseballBigMouth.com strongly support the quickest and most-painless method of putting the ol’ girl out of her misery. Long-ignored and crumbling ever-more with each passing day, Detroit as a city needs to cleanse itself its latest urban blight – sooner than later.

- The Heckler

CLICK HERE for The Heckler’s first baseball game at Tiger Stadium

CLICK HERE for more on The Hecklers’s first baseball game at Tiger Stadium

CLICK HERE for more on Tiger Stadium’s demolition

CLICK HERE for BaseballBigMouth’s debate on Tiger Stadium’s demolition plans

CLICK HERE for still more on Tiger Stadium’s demolition process

Photo used with permission of Early Era Baseball Photos.com

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 8:08 am and is filed under MLB photos, Baseball History, Tiger Stadium, Waxing Nostalgic, Baseball News and Views, Heckles All Around. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.