Can Ballpark Fix Biloxi's Blues?

BILOXI, Miss.—Billions of dollars in BP PLC payments after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have gone toward everything from coastal restoration to compensating fishermen and dolphin research.

But $15 million of recovery money directed to the building of a roughly $40 million minor-league baseball stadium here has some residents in the region questioning whether the funds are being used as intended and are addressing the area's most critical needs. City officials who proposed the stadium say the new home to the as-yet unnamed Double-A team will enhance tourism, which has already seen a recovery since the crude came washing onto Gulf Coast beaches and waterways in 2010, sending visitors packing and worrying environmentalists.

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Biloxi, roughly halfway between New Orleans and Pensacola, Fla., is in many ways emblematic of the Gulf Coast three years after the spill. Neither the economic nor the environmental effects appear to have been as catastrophic as people first feared, although the true impact may not be clear for years. But many such coastal towns are struggling from long-standing problems, and the various pools of recovery funds could prove to be a tempting resource to help fix problems unrelated to the spill.

Conflicts such as that sparked by Biloxi's stadium financing could increase as hundreds of millions of dollars in spill-related payments start flowing out to state governments along the coast. Already, at least one similar dispute about how to use BP's money has cropped up in Alabama, where the state plans to use company funds to rebuild a state-park lodge destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

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Some simply question whether Biloxi—whose population dropped from about 50,500 in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, to about 45,000 today—can support a baseball team.. And some lament that BP money is going for projects not directly related to the spill. Many shrimpers, oystermen and crabbers were out of work for months during the spill and its aftermath. They say their industry never fully recovered—and they would like to see compensation.


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