Minor league baseball is up against the wall, and it’s not because they’re trying to field a long ball to left center.
This article from SI.com says the winds are bad, and changing for the worse:
Following professional baseball’s shutdown in March, minor league clubs now exist in a sort of sports purgatory, 160 affiliates unsure whether they will have games to host and worried about how they will pay employees, settle debts, and potentially return millions of dollars in ticket and advertising revenue to fans and sponsors. Not to mention the existential anxiety they’ve felt since early last winter, when Major League Baseball proposed a plan that would reportedly eliminate 42 affiliates and give big league clubs greater control over the system.
. . .
A Sports Illustrated survey of minor league organizations, sent to all teams in late April, shows just how desperate the situation has become. The responses of 68 clubs—in addition to interviews with executives representing 21 of those teams—make clear that the minor leagues are facing a crisis that could destroy professional baseball in cities across the country. At every classification level, in markets ranging from metropolitan cities to rural outposts, front offices are worried about their clubs’ survival, concerned about the viability of rival teams and wondering how the minors will recover from a pandemic that is pummeling an American institution.
But don’t worry. We’ll be fine.
Just kidding.
The way I see it, MountainStar Sports Group will find a way to argue that the City of El Paso has reneged on their half of the one-sided contract they signed back in 2012.
So, they’ll say. Sorry. We meant well. But you know, Coronavirus. So we’re selling the team. Maybe you can convert the ballpark to a used car lot.
It’s time for our local robber baron philanthropists to admit that their plan failed, and El Paso isn’t getting any of the Economic Development they promised us.
I recall predicting a short life span for this fiasco long before it was finished. Hell, even before they blew up a once useful, convenient, and adequate City Hall. I may have missed by a couple of years, but this will not be a surprise at all. Meanwhile, please note that they cannot lay the blame for this on the current pandemic.
Did somebody mention a used car lot? Genius.
Or maybe a drive in movie theater.?
I think I predicted 5 to 7 years before they abandoned the team. What’s interesting is, if they DO walk on this, what the reaction is going to be toward these “philanthropists” and all around good guys to those who love them. What’s going to happen to the city officials, past and present, who were all for this deal?
It’s already being used for soccer, is it not? My guess is that that will become its new use. No?
Poorly utilized as a soccer venue because of layout!
But the arena is going to save the day and we need a waterpark downtown, the field is already leveled, start pouring the cement and bring in the slides.
Yup
did i miss something? i couldn’t find any references to the EP team. i know MLB and the minors were looking to get rid of teams in po-dunk towns. as far as i read, no triple a teams were considered for elimination.
No, they haven’t announced the Chihuahuas imminent departure, but MLB is looking to exert more control over MiLB, and that might affect MountainStar’s bottom line. The word on the street is that MountainStar is already losing a million dollars a year.
How long will they let it bleed?