The prospects for a proposed new ballpark in Escondido for the Tucson Padres (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) are growing dimmer by the day, as the city is moving forward with planning of a clean-tech-oriented business park on the ballpark site.
At the end of the day, having a clean-tech business hub on the 27 acres originally envisioned for the ballpark site is a powerful enticement for city officials looking to attract high-paying jobs to the area: a ballpark woudn’t add high-paying jobs or increases on the local tax rolls, no matter how much other economic activity is possible. And with the county and the state working on efforts to establish a tech beachhead in North County, the prospect of lucrative development will be a powerful inventive to dump a ballpark proposal in favor of economic development.
Not that the ballpark is totally dead: Escondido officials say it could be revived if economic-development funds are untouched by the state. Still, once the numbers are crunched, it will take some immediate action to save Escondido as the future home of the T-Pods.
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