Public Hearing On Fayetteville Team Set For Aug. 11

With the Astros in negotiations to bring a high Class A team to Fayetteville, N.C., the city’s officials are seeking public input on the plan.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, the Fayetteville City Council and mayor voted 10-0 Monday to hold a special meeting on Aug. 11 and a public hearing on bringing a minor league team to town and building a ballpark. According to the newspaper, the Astros and Fayetteville are in talks on a memorandum of understanding that would lay out each side’s financial commitments.

The Astros are currently affiliated with the Lancaster JetHawks of the California League; the team is owned by Jake Kerr and is one of the league’s better franchises, unlikely to move. More likely, the Astros would purchase another franchise and move it to Fayetteville, if the plans come to fruition.

Councilman Jim Arp told the newspaper that negotiations are “between 85 and 90 percent done.” According to the Observer, private developers are prepared to spend more than $60 million on commercial and residential plans around a ballpark that would be built near the Prince Charles Hotel off Hay Street in downtown.

Jason Freier of Hardball Capital, an investment and consulting firm based in Atlanta that has a stake in three minor league teams—low Class A Fort Wayne (Padres), Double-A Chattanooga (Dodgers) and low Class A Columbia (Mets)—would not confirm Councilman Arp’s numbers but seemed optimistic a deal could be reached.

“You never know how close something is or isn’t, but that is the next logical step, a memo of an agreement on basic terms,” he said.

Freier is working for the city of Fayetteville, not the Astros, so he where the franchise would relocate from is not in his purview. But he said he was confident the Astros had something lined up.

“The city would not be having this discussions unless they had some assurances from the Astros,” he said. “The specifics of where the team is coming from, none of that matters (in regards to Fayetteville). If this situation works out, where and how that matter is resolved is outside the scope of what the city (of Fayetteville) is involved with.”

A team could play in Fayetteville as soon as 2017, Freier said, but where it would play is a down-the-road discussion. Astros owner Jim Crane has been quoted in the past by the Observer as shooting for 2018.

“In terms of where a team might play until a (new) stadium is built has not been discussed. All of the energy has been directed to the long-term solution,” he said. “Obviously, no new ballpark would be ready for next season. But the question of where the team might play is secondary.”

J.P. Riddle Stadium, which was home of the South Atlantic League franchise that played in Fayetteville from 1987-2001, remains in use, occupied by the Fayetteville SwampDogs of the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League. It likely would require a standards waiver from Minor League Baseball to serve as a temporary high Class A home, however.

In April, Fayetteville city manager Rochelle Small-Toney told Baseball America confirmed the city’s interest in building a stadium and eventually bringing in a minor league team, but noted that everything was subject to the results of an economic feasibility study.

“The city is very much interested, I think, in pursuing the construction of a minor league stadium. And that hasn’t even actually been determined to happen,” she said. “We’re in the process now of receiving, we hope, the first report of the feasibility study. (City) council, from the information that will be provided from that report, of course, will make a decision as to whether to continue with the process of considering a minor league baseball stadium in the city.”

Small-Toney also told BA the estimated cost of the new stadium would be determined as part of the feasibility study. The average cost of the four new stadiums Fayetteville representatives visited is $43.5 million. Fayetteville last had a minor league team from 1987-2000 in the low Class A South Atlantic League. The franchise moved to Lakewood, N.J., for the 2001 season.

The Rangers would also love to have the opportunity to have their high Class A affiliate in the Carolina League. The Rangers are currently tied to the High Desert Mavericks, a franchise that has struggled for years and is currently locked in a lease dispute with the city of Adelanto, Calif., which owns its ballpark.

Kyle Glaser wrote about the issues involved with a minor league franchise in High Desert.