Baseball back to Ottawa - finally some good and solid news

[Marcelo]

On December 1st Ottawa's corporate service and economic development committee approved a process to request and evaluate lease deals to have a professional baseball team playing at Ottawa stadium in 2010.

There are two groups biding:

1) Ottawa Stadium Group - led by David Butler and Duncan MacDonald - to bring a Golden League team.

2) Ottawa Professional Baseball Group - led by Can-Am comissioner Miles Wolff - to bring a Can-Am team.

Ottawa's corporate service and economic development committee has a deadline of February 1st to make a decision. The deadline may be too late to put a team in place, so we hope that they can come to a decision much sooner than February 1st.

In addition, there was a third group biding for the lease. It was led by Ottawa businessman Neil Malhotra and wanted to bring in a professional soccer team. However, since that plan would require significant work to prepare the field the committee decided not to explore that as an option.

Additional information can be found at:

http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa//article/385042--clock-ticking-on-bids-to-bring-pro-baseball-back-to-ottawa

[Berkshirian]

Golden League?????

How would that make ANY sense?????

:roll:

[ottawasportsfan2010]

Golden League?????

How would that make ANY sense?????

:roll:

From my understanding the golden league is interested in ottawa so i think they may be looking at forming a eastern division.

[OttawaBallFan]

> they may be looking at forming a eastern division.

Maybe so but haven't heard any plans for them to do so. And which other eastern cities?

Not a good idea. Can you imagine the costs of an Ottawa team traveling west for every road trip? Even if it was for one year until the GBL sets up an eastern division?

Not a good idea #2. An Ottawa franchise could not plan for future without knowing if indeed there would be an eastern division and which cities.

Unlikely. Time frame to put team (front office and players not to mention sales and everything else) together is too short. It was bad enough when the Rapidz got started on December 1st (no players to speak of in mid-Feb, manager was announced at that time) imagine doing it two months later than that. And we assume the city is going to make a decision on February 1st. It could be delayed and it probably will.

I assume each of these groups already has people to quickly take over the front office. But there's still a manager and players to find. But, if the GBL group wins, does that mean that the GBL will instantly put a team in Ottawa? I doubt that very much. Don't forget that the other teams have to know and prepare in advance too who they'll be playing. That's problematic even for a Can-Am winning bid.

Sorry to say, there will be no pro baseball team in Ottawa in 2010. It's already too late in my opinion. There's still that women's semi-pro team but I think that's only if the group proposing this wins the bid.

[ottawasportsfan2010]

> they may be looking at forming a eastern division.

Maybe so but haven't heard any plans for them to do so. And which other eastern cities?

Not a good idea. Can you imagine the costs of an Ottawa team traveling west for every road trip? Even if it was for one year until the GBL sets up an eastern division?

Not a good idea #2. An Ottawa franchise could not plan for future without knowing if indeed there would be an eastern division and which cities.

Unlikely. Time frame to put team (front office and players not to mention sales and everything else) together is too short. It was bad enough when the Rapidz got started on December 1st (no players to speak of in mid-Feb, manager was announced at that time) imagine doing it two months later than that. And we assume the city is going to make a decision on February 1st. It could be delayed and it probably will.

I assume each of these groups already has people to quickly take over the front office. But there's still a manager and players to find. But, if the GBL group wins, does that mean that the GBL will instantly put a team in Ottawa? I doubt that very much. Don't forget that the other teams have to know and prepare in advance too who they'll be playing. That's problematic even for a Can-Am winning bid.

Sorry to say, there will be no pro baseball team in Ottawa in 2010. It's already too late in my opinion. There's still that women's semi-pro team but I think that's only if the group proposing this wins the bid.

Its to early to say if there will be baseball in 2010 or not.Yes feb 1st is when they say they will announce the wiinner but i think they may be when its made public.My guess is the winning group may know alot sooner then that.Flying out west is not that bad they likely could even get a real good deal if there is 6-8 flights.Again i would not read to much into the feb 1st as i just have a feeling that is more public annoucment more then anything.I maybe wrong about all of this its just a feeling i have.

[spaggis]

The Feb 1 date is pretty optimistic in my opinion. City council voted to solicit "best offers to lease" the stadium for 2 years. City staff said the advertising for this would be out in 2 to 3 weeks and the normal time period for accepting proposals would be 30 days. Looking at the math:

- Dec 1 decision to request best proposals
- Dec 15 - 22 ad placed to solicit proposals
- Jan 14 - 21 final date to submit proposals

That leaves between 10 and 17 days to evaluate proposals, do any other detail work necessary, etc before recommending a winner. Doable, but we are talking about the city here...

The obvious, and best, answer would have been to accept Miles Wolff's offer of a 2 year lease extension back in October. The David Butler OSG proposal is just not creditable and should be eliminated quickly. They are all fluff with no substance. The last thing we need is another badly run sports team, and from where I sit, OSG make the zipperheads look good.

It really looks like the city has managed to drop the ball on this.

[OttawaBallFan]

> Flying out west is not that bad they likely could even get a real good deal if there is 6-8 flights.

It's still a lot of money. We're talking about an independent league team here, not a major league team. Even the Lynx only flew a couple of times and that expense deeply cut into their profits. I know for sure they got about half price hotel rooms but that was still about $70 per night per player. Can't get around that for any team. But to fly on every road trip? Not to mention the other teams having to come here. Some of them in the GBL are not very financially stable. No way. Even if this group wins, no way the GBL plays in Ottawa in 2010.

> The obvious, and best, answer would have been to accept Miles Wolff's
> offer of a 2 year lease extension back in October.

Agree. They may still but again, I don't see how we can have a team ready for a late May 2010 start if a decision is made in February. Even Miles as the commish can guarantee a team here although he's been known to pull rabbits out of hats before. I have faith in him but the obstacles and logistics are just so great.