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Sunday, July 16, 2017

Perdue Stadium Improvements Get $500K Boost

SALISBURY – Officials in Wicomico County this week approved a $500,000 grant award that will be used to make infrastructure improvements at the Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.

The Maryland General Assembly authorized the $500,000 grant as provided in House Bill 151, which allots funds for planning, design, construction, repair, renovation, site improvements and more at the Arthur W. Perdue stadium. The grant does not require a matching component from the county.

In a legislative session of the Wicomico County Council Wednesday, Delmarva Shorebirds General Manager Chris Bitters and Steve Miller, director of the county’s recreation, parks and tourism department, met with the council to discuss the grant.

“Were looking to accept funding in the amount of $500,000 from the state of Maryland,” Bitters said.

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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not a grant, it is our tax payer money being used for this! The owners should pay for this, not the taxpayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How much will Wicomico county tax payers have to shell for this?
No jobs here, but they are willing to piss away money that could be used for badly needed projects like our infrastructure to hopefully attract new business here.

Anonymous said...

I agree 9:40. Perdue should fork over the money or the abomination should be put out to sponsors and renamed. Perdue has never done anything except drag the area further and further into blight, poverty and with that comes the crime.

Anonymous said...

The county owns the stadium

Anonymous said...

9:40am....you made a very important comment, I can tell by the sheer multitude of exclamation points you wrote.

Perhaps, maybe this small amount of money could attract new business here, in a roundabout way.

Maybe.....upgrades are done to improve stadium.....perhaps an out of town business owner is attracted to the improved stadium, and likes the benefit of being located in an area that supports minor league baseball (maybe they're even an Oriole fan)....and the owner buys season tickets and distributes to employees and customers.

I know, that's a crazy idea. No one will ever do that.

Anonymous said...

The stadium should have plenty money, you see what they charge for beer?

Anonymous said...

10:30
I would say maybe not.
There are many empty seats now. Food cost is outrageous, and you have to pay for parking on top of the ticket price. Kind of high for a family of four.
I see it as a big waste of money that could go fix other problems in this community. Other businesses like restaurants pay for their own improvements and upgrades. Deli at Pecan Square is a good example of this. Great business and great people. They are even having a fund raiser to help the homeless. Don't see much of this happening from the Shorebirds.

Anonymous said...

So between Wor Wic and the Perdue stadium, taxpayers have contributed over 1 million $$$.

Anonymous said...

It is a ridiculous waste of taxpayers money!!
You are right ----Grants are taxpayers money.

Anonymous said...

Improvements to a stadium that draws customers who pay. Money earned is shared with the county. County in turn does pass that minor amount to citizens. MINOR was the word I used. IF stadium doesn't exist (baseball, fireworks, concerts, other) then no money is made, nothing to county, probably hire costs for any other services.

Point being, the county is hemorrhaging internally (we know that), the stadium does help, look up the stats. Do away with it, then we have nothing and the price of other things (offset by the stadium income) goes up. Didn't even factor in JOBS the stadium does provide. Remember one thing, it does cost to run a business so concessions will be high!

Better to HAVE the stadium than nothing!

Anonymous said...

So a business can't keep up with expenses? Cut overhead, cut salaries, raise admission prices, get a loan, rent out the stadium for rock concerts, or go out of business. The taxpayers should not have to pay for bad business decisions.

The public should demand an audit of this business from top to bottom since they are expected to keep it afloat.


Anonymous said...

LOL 10:30-Wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one gets filled faster. You are so out of touch about how it is in the real world that it's funny. It's hilarious what you people say who never get off the shore and see how it is in the real world. Now go and crawl back into your hole in LaLaLand.

Anonymous said...

They should change the name. Perdue is such a horrible sounding name in and of itself. People with money won't go there because Perdue to them is equated with such an inferior product and a company that has turned areas into toxic waste dumps.

Anonymous said...

The Shorebirds have peaked out, like happens with many minor league ball clubs over the years.. This is no longer a profit making situation for the county nor the state. I used to go 20 or 30 times a year around 2000-2005. Now I have not been in at least 7 years to a single game. Have turned down dozens of free tickets. Parking, Prices for food, etc. are out of control. They could demolish that stadium and not hurt my feelings a bit.
2 people killed out there by it at Dennys. The Wendys is closed down. k-Mart will close soon for sure. I'd say $500,000 could be spent in a much better way.
This is a total waste of tax payer money now. What element is the ball park drawing to this side of town?

Anonymous said...

@1:57 the land was donated by the Perdues to build that stadium. I think it's great it was named after Frank's father.

Anonymous said...

Perdue stadium was named after a corporation and from a corporation family. Let them pay for this, and not the tax payer. If not, the Perdue name needs to come down and just call it Wicomico County Stadium which is more accurate and funded by the tax payers against our will.

Anonymous said...

If you think that's a lot of money look at what your tax dollars pay for at Camden yards and Ravens stadium. They are all owned by the state and ALL the maintenance and renovations are paid for with your tax dollars

Anonymous said...

You would be surprised to find out that the stadium is one of very few venues that isn't in the red. Even though they do not make the money to do renovations they do not need tax dollars to function