Civitas Flash Poll: Wilmington Baseball Stadium

Civitas Flash Poll: Wilmington Baseball Stadium

City Voters Are Not Fans – If They Are Paying

March 7, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Francis De Luca (919) 834-2099
Francis.Deluca@NCCivitas.org

Raleigh, N.C. – A proposal to build a taxpayer-funded baseball stadium in Wilmington is striking out with voters there, according to a new flash poll conducted with media partners WWAY NewsChannel 3 and The Big Talker FM.

Seventy percent of the registered voters responding to the poll opposed a city-financed $40 million ballpark, with only 20 percent supporting the idea. Nine percent were unsure. Opposition crossed the gender gap: 73 percent of the men and 69 percent of the women opposed a city-funded field.

Opposition rose to 86 percent if taxes had to be increased to pay for it. On the other hand, 82 percent of  the respondents said they’d support a stadium built by a private developer.

“Wilmington voters are greeting the notion of a city-funded ball field with a loud and clear ‘You’re out!’,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “The poll suggests that stadium supporters need to find private funding and leave taxpayers’ wallets alone.”

For the poll, 300 Wilmington registered voters were interviewed by SurveyUSA from Feb. 25 through 27, exclusively for the Civitas Institute of Raleigh along with media partners WWAY and “The Big Talker” Radio.

The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina.  For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

For the full results and crosstabs, click Here.

Questions asked:

There is a proposal to build a $40 million, 6,500 seat baseball stadium in Wilmington. Would you support? Or would you oppose? Building this stadium if it were financed by the city of Wilmington?

Support 20%
Oppose 70%
Not Sure 9%

Would you support? Or would you oppose? Building this stadium if your taxes had to be increased in order to pay for it?

Support 9%
Oppose 86%
Not Sure 5%

Would you support? Or would you oppose? Building this stadium if it were financed by private developers?

Support 81%
Oppose 10%
Not Sure 9%

About the Poll: This poll was conducted by telephone in the voice of a professional announcer. Respondent households were selected at random, using Random Digit Dialed (RDD). All respondents heard the questions asked identically. Where necessary, respondents were weighted using the most recent US Census estimates for age, gender, ethnic origin and region, to align the sample to the population. In theory, one can say with 95% certainty that the results would not vary by more than the stated margin of sampling error, in one direction or the other, had the entire universe of respondents with home telephones been interviewed with complete accuracy. There are other possible sources of error in all surveys that may be more serious than sampling error. These include: the difficulty of interviewing respondents who do not have a home telephone; the refusal by some with home telephones to be interviewed; the order in which questions are asked; the wording of questions; the way and extent to which data are weighted; and the manner in which specialized populations, such as likely voters, are determined. It is difficult to quantify the errors that may result from these and other factors. Research methodology, questionnaire design and fieldwork for this survey were completed by SurveyUSA of Clifton, NJ. This statement conforms to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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