Friday, January 26, 2007

Minor league baseball in Dallas is all but dead for one ownership group

By Blair Lovern

Headline in the DMN earlier this week: "Homeless center plan may doom proposed stadium." Actually, there is no ambiguity for one stadium site. Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to start work on the new homeless shelter (groundbreaking begins next month). That flat-out killed the stadium plans for one baseball group, which was planning to build on a site near where the shelter is going.

According to City Council member Bill Blaydes, a second site for a stadium is under consideration by Scott Berry, president of the Southern Independent Baseball group. But Blaydes said "it's not met with the same interest and enthusiasm" as the original site, which was in the southeastern part of the city near the Dallas Farmers Market. Although getting a team in downtown Dallas isn't a dead issue yet, from the tone of Blaydes's voice it didn't sound promising.

A phone call to Scott Berry's office was not returned before this story was posted.

John Bryant

A second group, however, is going through with plans to try to put a team in downtown Dallas via the United League. UL chief executive officer John Bryant said his group has made "a very specific proposal to the city of Dallas" that has been in the planning stages for about six months.

"I don't want to reveal the location or any of the details of it yet, partly because we'd like to announce it on our own terms," Bryant said. "Our proposal is not affected by the location of the homeless assistance shelter."

Bryant, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms from 1983 to 1997, said he jumped at the opportunity to try to place a team in his hometown.

"I think downtown Dallas would benefit from it and I think it would be quite successful there."

Bryant said staff at City Hall are reviewing UL plans now and will schedule a meeting to discuss more. "We're just waiting to be told when that meeting is," Bryant said. "My impression is that it will be in about two weeks."

Blaydes said he didn't know of Bryant's plans.

"As far as I know they don't have any land under control, and I have seen no plans to present their case to Council, other than they'd just like to put baseball team here."

Blaydes said Berry's group was willing to trade property with the homeless shelter, which would place it less than a mile away from where it's going now. But, Blaydes said, "some members on the Council were bound and determined to stay with the idea that they weren't going to move it. They really dug in their heels and wanted to keep it exactly where it is downtown."

In the DMN, City Council member Angela Hunt was reported saying, “To reopen this debate seems crazy. We’re breaking ground next month (on the shelter.)" She said a stadium and homeless shelter could exist near one another.

Berry was negotiating for a Dallas team for the 10-team American Association, which was created in 2005 by merging the old Northern League and Central League indy leagues. Fort Worth (a member of the bygone AA back in the good ol' days) became a charter member of the new AA.

Miles Wolff, commissioner of the AA, said that it unless something happens fast on the stadium front, there will be no team in that league in Dallas. The Southern Independent Baseball group's proposal to the city of Dallas stated that a new stadium would be completed by March 31, 2008.

"From a league perspective, he (Berry) had the rights only to downtown Dallas," Wolff said. "Now, I have to say that this was such a preliminary issue - we can't add a team unless we have a stadium. We've been looking for a team to start in the 2008 season. Based on what I've seen, they may be running out of time on that."

Blaydes said Berry's group has been approached by Grand Prairie to put a team there. There are no baseball stadium plans on the Grand Prairie City Council agenda yet, said a city spokeswoman. If Grand Prairie were to get a team headed by the Southern Independent Baseball group, as things stand now, it would not be a part of the American Association.

A Dallas and Fort Worth team would be the closest rivals in the 10-team AA, which would then have to perhaps bump up to 12 teams or lose one to remain at an even number, Wolff said. But there needs to be a stadium in Dallas before it gets to that point in the decision-making.

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• Politics and Government > City Government > Dallas > Dallas City Hall
• Baseball > Minor League Baseball

Comments

Michael Davis Verified

I am still amazed at how the homeless are treated in Dallas.

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )