Money troubles with Gastonia’s baseball team worry nearby businesses

GASTONIA, N.C. — News of financial struggles within the Gastonia Honey Hunters organization is causing concern for some people who own businesses around their stadium.

This week, Channel 9 learned the baseball team owed more than $100,000 to the city and county, and had late or missed payments for staff and first responders.

Businesses in the area told reporter Ken Lemon the Honey Hunters’ games bring in a lot of customers.

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The city spent $26 million on the stadium, and the ripple effects of that investment are slowly spreading throughout the new district created around it, including a $58 million apartment complex just up the street.

Some worry the impact could stop if the team’s money problems continue. People at RO’s Barbecue aren’t close enough to hear the crack of the bat, but they know when it’s game day.

“I’d say a 10 to 15% increase at night,” manager Richard Cogdill said.

They’re a half-mile from the stadium, but Cogdill said fans come to the restaurant before and after the game. He said it’s been that way since the first pitch almost two years ago.

“We were glad to see them come,” Cogdill said.

It’s more than a business boost. New homes are also popping up in the previously underserved part of west Gastonia.

“Soon as the ballpark started construction, people started buying land up,” Cogdill said.

That boosted property values; a home one block from the stadium and a few blocks from the restaurant is listed at $300,000. For comparison’s sake, another house a block away is listed at $37,000.

“It would have blown your mind. You would have never though that,” Cogdill said.

Cogdill said it worries him to hear about the team’s issues paying its bills. He credits the team and the stadium for the dramatic improvements in the area, and he wants to know if the team’s current money troubles could spill out into the city.

“Where are these investors going to go?” he asked. “Are they going to drop back, take a step back and take their money somewhere else?”

The team’s chief operating officer promises they can weather these problems and they will not sell the team or move. But Codgill worries if enthusiasm drops, that could really hurt the community.

(WATCH PREVIOUS: Gastonia Honey Hunters to pay $100,000 it owes to city, Gaston County, officials say)