City Council approves 2-week delay before vote on MLB academy

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, March 5, approved a two-week delay before holding a vote on a proposed agreement between the city, the Major League Baseball Youth Foundation and the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board to locate a $10 million MLB youth academy at George Ward Park in Glen Iris.

The plan to locate the academy at George Ward Park may already be in danger, according to an email from MLB received by Birmingham City Council President Pro Tem William Parker on Tuesday morning prior to the council meeting.

The text of the email, sent to Parker by MLB representative Tony Reagins is as follows: "Major League Baseball would like to thank the City of Birmingham and the Parks and Recreation Board for their hard work during this process. At this time, we are going to reassess our position relative to an MLB Youth Academy at George Ward Park and will remain open to other site options within the city."

This came after numerous Glen Iris residents and other users of George Ward Park raised concerns over the last two weeks that the MLB facility would take away or reduce the size of some popular facilities at the park.

“This is a sad, sad day for the city of Birmingham,” said Parker — a strong advocate for the facility — after reading the email aloud.

Parker is a member of the city's park board and also serves as the chairman of the council’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Committee.

The proposed facility would be a year-round baseball academy that would also feature various academic, tutoring, mentoring and life skills programs.

Parker initially said he wished to withdraw an item from the council’s agenda. However, after suggestions from Hoyt and councilor Clinton Woods, Parker left the item on the agenda to allow discussion of the issue.

The item was also on the agenda on Feb. 26, but was delayed until March 5.

Parker, while speaking to the media outside the council chambers, seemed reluctant to dismiss any hope that the academy could still be located somewhere in the city.

“I’m always an optimist, but today hurts,” he said.

Parker and several other councilors, including Steven Hoyt and John Hilliard, said that there was a racial motive for a lot of the opposition to the facility — it would likely serve numerous black and Hispanic youth —and that there has been a lot of inaccurate information disseminated regarding the plan.

City Council President Valerie Abbott, who represents Glen Iris, argued that residents had legitimate questions about the effect of the academy on the park.

She said that residents and regular users of the park were not fully informed about the plan.

He said that the “community was not involved until the last couple of months” even though there have been discussions of the project between the Park Board and MLB since 2015.