Laura Goode wrote an article in The North Carolina State Bar Journal explaining how "minor league baseball has become major league business for a collection of cities large and small across North Carolina."

"At the heart of every minor league ballpark project is a commercial real estate deal: a building, on a budget, on a schedule, with agreed building elements, and an agreed quality standard," Laura wrote. "What has changed in recent years is that there is also now an economic development deal. Many potential team owners are first and foremost real estate developers. Their business plan is to break even on minor league baseball – and to make a profit developing or redeveloping the surrounding property. As you can imagine, that suits local governments just fine. (While we focus on baseball in this article, the concepts we discuss generally apply to any sports facility.)"

You can read the full article here. The Journal is the North Carolina State Bar’s quarterly magazine and reaches more than 30,000 attorneys.