burnsville MN ...

[ca]

is apparently thinking of entering the NL for the 09' season so whom does the NL add with them ? outside of ann arbor / ypsilanti MI i'm not sure the NL at this time can find another market that would want to house an class AA indy ball club

[GBearFan]

How about Madison, WI or Springfield, IL?? With both being state capitals, there would be a "pride" issue at stake in either town. It just adds a little something when you can say "we're the state capital AND we have a professional baseball team".

[Morris Mott]

Madison already had a NL team, the Black Wolf. They folded.

Right now they are leading the Northwoods Summer College League in attendence and have little interest in changing that.

[ca]

due to high competition for a limited amount of markets a any kind of a public / private financing for a ballpark in the NL (and probably the AA as well) is virtually impossible . so its find a respectible college park or call the whole thing off because everything else is just grasping for straws

[Morris Mott]

Actually, a single team would be just fine for the NL, with no need for a second team to enter with the proposed Metro Millers. With inter-league on the horizon, home teams can be treated to 6 different teams, plus a week or two of AA, Can-Am or even Frontier League teams coming in. A 7 team NL, with inter-league play would provide more than enough variety for it's fans and lessen the "need" to expand.

[ca]

is an idea i dont see working out all that well if at all

[Morris Mott]

I already see the beginning steps of Inter-league play, and I'm not talking about those pre-season games the AA and NL play either. I'm talking about that almost invisible logo on the NORTHERN and FRONTIER Leagues' websites, the IPBF. That stands for the INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL FEDERATION.

To me it looks like an attempt to unite the Indy leagues as they have always hoped to someday. Instead of competing against each other, this looks like the first step in co-operating with each other instead. Sure it's only two Leagues, but if they can get all the Indy leagues together, then Inter-league games will be sure to follow. After all, which owner would balk at having a brand new team come to town for a game or two, marketing it as a once in a decade opportunity.

Back in 1996 I think it was, the Triple A baseball leagues were in such co-operation mode and on such good terms that they decided to fold the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION, move it's teams around to strengthen the INTERNATIONAL and PACIFIC COAST Leagues and to make the triple A World Series better... all for the good of the game and the health of Triple A.

If they can do it, why can't Indy ball?

[nlfan]

There have been many articles about the Burnsville stadium initiative in the Twin Cities papers as well as in Winnipeg (which have been covered elsewhere since Tuesday) when the story first appeared in the Mpls Star Tribune, later in Ballpark Digest and other sources. Googling the the topic or going to another obvious location will turn an ever growing number of them.

No Interleague

Sorry, Burnsville WILL need another team to go in with them.

There is still ABOSOLUTELY NO interest in interleague play from the AA. This fact was repeated at the start of the season in the Fargo papers with quotes from Miles Wolff himself. The AA, in particular the south division, has ZERO interest in playing anywhere in the NoL except, maybe, KCK. This remains a pipe dream which (rumors say) Commissioner Griffith told people in Burnsville --and I've personally confirmed with the Saints is not true.

As for other leagues the FL roster rules remain too different (LS-2 max) and the others are too far away (e.g. AtL, GBL).

Expansion Locations

In a Winnipeg Sun article Adam Wazny suggested Waukesha WI was the "long rumored" location. Unfortunately BPD already says that Waukesha is well on its way to getting an NWL franchise so that's not going to happen.

BPD did suggest that Waukegan IL is looking to build a ballpark. They said the NoL would be a likely candidate but it seems odd that Griffith would not have said something about it.

IPBF? It's just a logo right now.

The IPBF is only a logo with nothing going on behind it (as covered elsewhere). A Google search for "IPBF" will --I kid you not-- return a link to the "International Painful Bladder Foundation." At present it appears only the the NoL and FL sites and in the AA media guide. It remains more of an idea, but not much of an active group.

The indy leagues, other than the NoL, were more active in past years and held an annual conference. That stopped a year or two back but may restart.

Having the Indy League work together would be a good idea. It's a big step forward that the NoL, after years of ignoring the rest of indy ball, is warming up to the concept. That may help the many independently-minded owners (and leagues) become more "organized" like the MiLB (as Mr. Mott suggests).

[nlfan]

Searching the web you can also find a photo of the site and audio of the entire presentation is also online as a podcast.

In it the Commish says an 8th club will be announced in July.

[ca]

wil have more suitors than MI had snowstorms in march which will seriously hamper the nl's chances there . as for fl/nl play fl clubs cant afford to play the western clubs of the nl anymore than the nl clubs can afford trips to the aa south

[Morris Mott]

Well, since the topic has shifted over to Inter-league and I want to respond some more, I created another topic thread and will continue this discussion over there.