Yes! Weekly's Keith Barber asks if it's wise for the city of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to spend public funds on the new baseball stadium considering that our social services are stretched to the max.  From his piece:

The official unveiling of the Winston- Salem minor league baseball team’s new name at the Millennium Center on Dec. 4 seemed a world away from the harsh realities facing many of Forsyth County’s residents. The general gaiety of the event enjoyed by an estimated 700 people felt like a scene out of the Roaring ’20s, like the day before the stock market crash of 1929…

At the end of October, the NC Employment Security Commission reported Forsyth’s unemployment rate at 6.3 percent. The number of unemployed individuals in Forsyth has risen 35.4 percent since the same period in 2007. Since Jan. 1, 2008, nine Forsyth employers have reported layoffs and 30 area businesses have shuttered their doors, putting more than 1,000 people out of work. And those are just the ones that have been reported.

Despite the hard times in Forsyth, the show went on at last week’s ceremony to announce the new name of the team formerly known as the Warthogs. Baseball Downtown and Mandalay Baseball, the managing entity of the minor league franchise, spared no expense at the event called “Baseball New Year.” When the team’s multi-millionaire owner, Billy Prim, and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines unveiled the team’s new name — the Dash — the crowd roared its approval. All of this left me to wonder: Why would the city and the county agree to loan a multimillionaire upwards of $24 million to build a downtown ballpark when those funds could be more wisely spent on the needs of the homeless, the jobless and the hungry in Forsyth County? The Winston-Salem City Council agreed to put up $12 million toward the construction of the downtown ballpark in November 2007. In March of last year, the Forsyth County Commissioners approved a resolution allowing Prim’s company, Sports Menagerie LLC, and Brookstown Development Partners to receive economic development incentives up to $12.5 million to be paid in annual installments over a 25-year period. At that time, the economic outlook in Forsyth wasn’t as bleak as it currently is, but the picture wasn’t rosy by any stretch. In fact, Joines and the city council are four years into a 10-year plan to fight chronic homelessness. Andrea Kurtz of the United Way of Forsyth County is tasked with implementing the plan. Kurtz said the recession has pushed the resources of Forsyth’s social service agencies to their breaking point.

I've never liked the idea of public funding for ball parks that benefit private companies or individuals and my thinking on the Winston-Salem ball park has focused mainly on my disagreement with the philosophy of the use of public funds in this way.  Until now I hadn't thought of the opportunity costs associated with the city's decision to fund the stadium, but when you do think about it they are substantial.  Yes the city is due to get its money back eventually, but as Barber points out in the mean time the money could have been used to bolster social services now that it's really needed but it's tied up in the stadium project.

Since we've come this far I truly hope that the project is a success and that we see a revitalized downtown come out of this, but as a community we need to have a serious discussion about how tax dollars are used for private enterprise.  What happens the next time an entrepreneur comes calling with an idea for a new theater, entertainment complex or indoor stadium that will be used as a cornerstone for some new revitalization effort in some other part of town?  Do we whip out the checkbook or do we say "Good luck" and then provide as much help as we can to make it a reality  by expediting permits, assigning someone to help them work through the red tape, etc.?  As you might guess my vote would be for the latter.