Winston-Salem leaders say the city’s interests at Truist Stadium remain well protected with new agreements that take into effect the recently-announced sale of the Winston-Salem Dash to new owners.
By a unanimous vote, the Winston-Salem City Council on Monday approved amendments to the complicated leases that govern the stadium, which the city owns and leases to the team.
The passage came after a public hearing in which no one spoke, but Assistant City Manager Ben Rowe echoed what City Attorney Angela Carmon informed the council’s Finance Committee last week when summing up the results of the agreement changes.
“It does not weaken the city’s position,” Rowe told the city council before the vote.
The team announced earlier this month that it had been sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings, which already owns the Hickory Crawdads and the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston. The new ownership group, known as DBH, was formed in 2021 and owns 29 clubs around the country.
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As city officials explained in the Finance Committee last week, the lease changes protect the city by moving what’s called a Cessation of Use Penalty from an agreement the city had with the former ownership group to a lease made with DBH, which is running the team under the corporate name DBH Winston-Salem LLC.
The penalty requires the new owners to pay the city $8.5 million if they stop using the stadium. Carmon explained during the Finance Committee meeting that the penalty was formerly contained in the lease with the former owners, a team led by local businessman Billy Prim.
The discussion around the lease amendments was easy compared to some of the bumps the city road over when the stadium was built, and later when Major League Baseball called for stadium improvements.
Originally planned for a 2009 opening, the stadium didn’t open until a year later because of construction stoppages and the consolidation of team management under Prim. The city had to put more money into the stadium but also took over its ownership.
In 2021, when word came that Major League Baseball was reducing the number of minor-league teams, the city acted to make sure the Dash didn’t get put out of business: A new agreement reduced lease payments by 50%, established a new 25-year lease, eliminated a ticket surcharge going to the city and required the city to make $5 million in stadium improvements to meet standards set by MLB.
One payment that hasn’t changed is a commitment by team owners to pay the city some $93,000 in lieu of property tax payments, but the commitment transfers from the old to the new owners.
Despite the adjustments required in light of the change in team ownership, local officials have had nothing but praise for what they see as a commitment by the new owners to make the baseball experience here better. Mayor Allen Joines praised the new owners when the announcement was made.
On Monday, Robert Clark, the chairman of the city’s Finance Committee, called himself “fairly optimistic” from what he’s learned about the new owners.
“I think the folks taking it over are dedicated,” Clark said. “I think we are going to see some improvements.”
More protests
People calling for the city to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in war-torn Gaza once more turned out for Monday’s meeting of the council, and said they plan to keep putting pressure on the city to act.
Responding to comments some city elected leaders made to a Journal reporter recently to the effect that U.S. policy in the Mideast is not an area for the City Council to get involved in, some speakers said city residents already are involved because their tax dollars support Israel.
“Unless this city of Winston passes a resolution for the U.S. to cease all funding and military support to Israel using American tax money, we are all in this room at odds with international humanitarian law via directly funding genocide,” said speaker James Marshall, one of more than a half-dozen speakers who brought up the war in Gaza.
Speaker Matthew Mayers, whose main reason to speak was to complement the city on moving toward more green transportation, said he agreed with the cause of the protesters and suggested they speak more directly with the lawmakers whose votes can direct policy.