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!
