Time has virtually run out for professional baseball to return to Ottawa in 2013.
The city’s hopes of landing the Toronto Blue Jays’ Eastern League Double-A affiliate ended Wednesday after the Major League Baseball team renewed its working relationship with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats for two more seasons, through 2014.
Toronto has been New Hampshire’s parent club since the Fisher Cats began play in Manchester in 2004, and the extension nixes the notion by U.S.-based Beacon Sports that it would buy an existing Eastern League franchise, re-locate it to Ottawa for 2013 and nab the Blue Jays affiliation.
Put that together with the fact previously approved renovations to the stadium to bring it back up to professional standards have yet to start and professional baseball leagues are already moving into the planning phase for next season, and it would appear 2013 is now an impossible goal for returning pro ball to the capital.
Ottawa politicians and Beacon Sports had been working for almost a year to make that happen. Speculation was that the Beacon group had a tentative deal to buy the Binghamton, New York, franchise and re-locate it.
Now it’s unclear where the Ottawa baseball bid stands and what happens to the renovations slated to begin this summer at Ottawa Stadium.
Beacon Sports managing director and COO Richard Billings has been the face of the Ottawa bid and he was adamant the Ottawa bid for professional baseball was not dead. He was in Ottawa as recently as a week ago working with city staff. However, he was referring all calls to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s office after the announcement.
Watson said he had no new information and negotiations continue, but added the city needs to know in June whether an Eastern League Double-A team would be “go or no-go” in the Ottawa Stadium for the 2013 season.
“The bottom line is that unless we have a Double-A team, we’re not going to do all of the extensive renovations for a Double-A team,” Watson said.
If an agreement can’t be reached for the 2013 season, he said, “I wouldn’t read into (it) that there’s going to be no Double-A baseball, it just means that we’re probably going to need more time to put all the pieces together and have a season in 2014.”
Watson said he still hadn’t given up hope of having a Blue Jays-affiliated team in Ottawa.
“The Jays understand marketing and they understand if they had a Double-A team in the second-largest city in the province, it would be good for them, and it would be good for us,” he said.
Watson ruled out development at the Coventry Road stadium if Ottawa didn’t land a team for next year, saying council had made clear its wishes to attempt to attract baseball and maintain the stadium “as a publicly owned baseball facility.”
Councillor Rick Chiarelli, a key city official on the file, said the announcement doesn’t scuttle the city’s hopes for a Double-A team in 2013.
“On the face of it, it’s a bit disappointing, but it’s only a two-year deal and it’s still possible to have Double-A baseball in Ottawa, maybe with a temporary affiliation with another team while we prove ourselves to try to get the Jays’ affiliation in 2014,” Chiarellis said.
Ottawa has been without professional baseball since the Triple-A International League Lynx left for Pennsylvania after the 2007 season, ending a 14-year run in Ottawa.
Since then, the condition of the stadium has deteriorated while the semi-pro Inter-County Baseball League Fat Cats have been the primary tenant.
The Fat Cats were scheduled to play the 2012 regular season in the stadium before vacating for their playoffs to facilitate the re-tooling of the stadium.
Just last week, David Gourlay, who heads the Champions for Ottawa Baseball initiative, announced his group had sold pledges for more than 3,000 ticket packages.
An Ottawa Chamber of Commerce luncheon is planned for next Wednesday at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in support of the bid.
“I am awaiting word from the City of Ottawa on its plans for the file,” Gourlay said. “But what I can say is that I, on behalf of the Champions for Ottawa Baseball, having just gone through a very successful community engagement process for Double-A baseball remain committed to the ongoing discussions between the City and Beacon.
No comments:
Post a Comment