What the market will bear

The question of a minor league ballpark has been lately lurking on a back burner here in Nashville, but in news from other minor league-level cities, ballparks are at the forefront. For comparative purposes, I give you El Paso, Texas and their bid for a Padres affiliate:

For a minor-league stadium deal, the El Paso one is crazily complex: The city will have to tear down its City Hall to make way for the stadium, which means city government will need to pay about $30 million to acquire new buildings to do its business in. Also, the city won’t share in any stadium revenue, but will get rent payments and a 10-cent-per-ticket admissions tax. How much El Paso taxpayers will get stuck with at the end of the day, in other words, will depend less on the hotel/motel tax approved [November 8] and more on the picayune details of the lease.