The following Letter to the Editor was written and submitted for publication by E.M. Brown.
With all the speculation and conflict swirling around the MPEV, I couldn’t help but wonder what the numbers for the team, The San Antonio Missions, were for last season (2017). So let’s jump right into it.
The San Antonio Missions are based out of the 3rd most populous metropolitan area in Texas with a population of 2,473,974. Studies show that the greater San Antonio area welcomes about 31,000,000 Tourist and Business people to the area per year. San Antonio offers a buffet of tourist attractions throughout the area. Best known for The Historic Landmark the Alamo, San Antonio also offers a Beautiful Riverwalk full of shopping, restaurants and a fresh of breath are nightlife. It is home to the NBA basketball team the San Antonio Spurs. If that is not enough then Sea World and Fiesta Texas will surely get you to bite on packing up and heading down there for vacation.
The Missions play home games at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium which has a capacity of 9,200. The Stadium opened April 18, 1994. On June 21, 2017, team owner David G. Elmore announced the relocation of the Missions Double-A franchise to Amarillo, Texas, in 2019, where a new $45.5 million (arguably) downtown ballpark will be constructed. The Double-A franchise will continue to compete in the Texas League under a new name that has still yet to be determined Meanwhile, the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox of the Pacific Coast League will relocate to San Antonio in 2019, and will continue use of the Missions name effectively elevating the Missions to a Triple-A franchise
Tickets vary from $15.00 to $45.00 depending on where you are sitting and what day of the week the game is on. In 2017 the average attendance was 4557 people per home game with a season attendance 305,351. The average ticket price is $30.00 and they had 67 games they played at home. So the approximated ticket revenue would be around $9,160,530.00. Let’s just say every person in attendance spends $25.00 on food, drink and souvenirs that would come in at $7,633,775.00 worth of revenue. The total revenue for 67 home games comes in around $16,794,305.00. The sales tax revenue for the city off of that total (2 percent) would come to $335,886.00.
You see all this is relevant to The City of Amarillo because in 2019 it looks to be play ball for the “Missions” in Amarillo. This is where things become a little fuzzy. The Amarillo Metropolitan population hovers around 262,056. This is a 5 county area. Sure, Palo Duro Canyon draws in some tourism every year that number seems to come in at around 190,000 per year with about 25 percent of these visitors actually camped at the park. The rest made day trips. Amarillo also has the World Famous Big Texan and the well-known Cadillac and as Historic Route 66.
The MPEV wants everyone to believe that’s what it is, when in fact, it’s just a ballpark. Nothing more. Nothing less. But can this team and the City of Amarillo bring in enough people to support this team? Seems to me it doesn’t matter how big the stadium is, it’s how many are interested enough to come watch the team. I will admit, I am not a professional sports team group specialist either, so I will have to believe at least for now that the Elmore Sports Group knows what they are doing.
One can’t help but wonder what The Elmore Sports Group has to gain from moving to Amarillo? Surely they do not expect a city at the top of Texas with a mere 262,056 people to even compare with a largely visited tourism town like San Antonio. Of course, this is just my opinion. I don’t seem to be smart enough to figure out what business sense this makes. But, it isn’t my money on the line. Well, wait, maybe it is. That part of my opinion has yet to be written.
