
Durham Bulls General Manager Mike Birling announcing the news.
First response came from downtown resident Ross Grady, who tweeted: "Yikes! Too bad we're still 2+ years away from additional downtown hotel rooms being online." Right: downtown Durham isn't really equipped to put up huge numbers of visitors, and the scarcity of rooms shines an interrogative light, once again, on the ongoing failure of Greenfire development to make progress on the hotel they've long proposed to install in the Suntrust building downtown. Greenfire has apparently off-loaded the project onto a Louisville, Ky. outfit, and if they can start getting those towel racks installed posthaste, maybe they'll be able to put up the hordes that need homes next July. Otherwise, if you live downtown, you could probably make a pretty penny renting out your pad.
But enough of that. This is great news for the city, which is currently swirling in All-Stardom. Not only is the souvenir ballgame due here in 17 months, but Durham is currently vying for the tiara in Southern Living's "South's Tastiest Town" pageant; the James Beard Award foodie nominations just tapped as national semi-finalists Phoebe Lawless of Scratch Bakery, Sean Lilly Wilson of Fullsteam brewery, and newcomer restaurant Mateo Tapas—and a waiter from Mateo said last night that the restaurant is currently selling more sherry than any other restaurant in the United States. For the love of God, Montresor! (But how do they measure such a thing?)
In other words, our epidermis is currently showing (oh, come on, you get it), and why not show a little skin, flaunt it while you've got it? It was a beautiful late morning after the press conference, a bright blue sky and pennant-waving breeze, and a curiously low-flying white twin-prop was turning tight, skylarking circles in the airspace over downtown. They looked for all the world like victory laps.
The Bulls' first home game of 2013, by the way, is Monday, April 8 at 6:05 p.m.