When Will The BBT Baseball Stadium Begin?

The political posturing has pretty much ended.  The Knights, have arranged financing, have found corporate sponsors and founding partners, they have released renderings of the new stadium on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and South Graham Streets, and have received endorsements from both the city and county governments.  Jerry Reese not withstanding, the next step seems to be shovels in the ground.

Not so fast!  The construction must start by October 1, but several things will happen first.

The DNC is forcing a relocation of the Transportation Mall from Brevard and Trade to Mint and Third Streets.  Here is a release from CATS:

CATS is moving the transportation center Sept. 3-5 to a temporary location at South Mint and Third streets -- and bus routes will change because of that.
From late July through August, CATS will conduct a series of transportation fairs in uptown buildings, at the current transportation center and at certain LYNX stations. Attendees will learn how buses will be rerouted during the DNC and information on shuttles between the LYNX Blue Line Carson Station to the temporary transit center.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/18/3389700/transit-fairs-will-detail-dnc.html#storylink=cpy

So, nothing will happen until after the convention, but once that happens, look out!  Fourth Street will be widened between Graham and Mint to accomodate 2 way traffic on that stretch.  Once widened, the existing branch of Third Street will be removed.  On the heals of that, the Virginia Paper building will be razed to make a contiguous block from MLK Jr. Blve to Fourth, Mint to Graham.  Then the pile driving and site preperation will begin. 

By next summer at this time, it should be looking pretty much like a stadium, no seats yet, and maybe no light poles yet but the shell will be there. 

Excting times are on their way.