11/01/2006

Midwest League Ballpark News

Here are a couple of stories from Ballparkdigest.com

Beloit ballpark proposal hits snag

Things may be looking grim for a new Snappers stadium.County board members at Thursday's meeting once again shot down an opportunity to run an appraisal of the three pieces of land named in the Mulder Dairy Farm's (MDF) land swap proposal. Without the appraisal, Assistant to the Administrator Phil Boutwell said the chances of the land swap moving forward are now slim to none.

Supervisors Brian Knudson, Sandra Kraft, Lynnette Kepplinger, Hank Brill, William Agnew, Ivan Collins and Mary Mawhinney all voted against the authorization and the vote failed 17 to seven with four absent and one seat vacant.

It gets a little complicated after that. There is a racetrack and some fundraising involved. I don't think snag is appropriate. Roadblock may be more like it.

Wizards set 2008 ballpark goal

The new owners of the local minor league baseball team want to play in a new or improved stadium by the 2008 season.

Fort Wayne officials said a decision on whether to move the Fort Wayne Wizards downtown will be made within 30 days.
...
Hardball Capital, the Atlanta-based group that bought the Fort Wayne Wizards in July, has been lauded by Fort Wayne officials as the perfect owner to move the team downtown with the owners’ experience in urban development. The city’s hope is to use a stadium as the centerpiece for a mixed-use downtown development that includes homes and shopping.

When city officials released the findings of their downtown baseball development report in July, which said a stadium could help spur downtown development, they said it could take several years for a stadium to be built.

The lease between the Wizards and Memorial Stadium ends after the 2007 season, however, providing the city and owners some urgency to get a deal accomplished.

This is going to be an interesting month in Fort Wayne.

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