No Double-A team for Ottawa in 2013, mayor says

There will be no Double-A baseball in Ottawa next year, Mayor Jim Watson told city councillors Friday, but the 2014 season remains a possibility as long as council approves and agreements can be reached.

The city?s hopes of having a Toronto Blue Jays-affiliated team in the Double-A Eastern League were dashed this week, when the major-league team announced an extension of its relationship with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats through 2014.

There?s no chance of any Double-A team relocating to Ottawa for 2013, Watson wrote in a memo Friday before tweeting that ?we will continue to work to fill our great stadium.?

Beacon Sports Capital Partners, which had been working to get a lease from the city and to bring a team to Ottawa Stadium, told Watson in a letter Friday that, ?despite the best efforts of all parties involved, we have simply run out of time in terms of securing a lease and receiving appropriate Baseball approvals to relocate an Eastern League team to Ottawa for the 2013 Baseball season.?

Beacon still wants to work with the city to bring a team to Ottawa for 2014, wrote Richard Billings, its managing director and chief operating officer. For that to happen, the Eastern League needs ?basic agreements? between the city and Beacon by no later than Oct. 1 for its review and approval, Billings wrote.

?I would appreciate hearing formally from the city by late July or early August in relation to the possibility of negotiating a lease for the 2014 season,? he wrote.

In his memo, Watson wrote that council?s approval was needed to direct city manager Kent Kirkpatrick to work toward a lease agreement with Beacon for 2014. Kirkpatrick?s current mandate is to negotiate a lease only for 2013.

Watson is to bring the issue to council?s finance committee and council in the coming weeks ?in the hope of securing a mandate for the City to pursue negotiations with Beacon over the course of the coming months,? he wrote.

?It is my understanding that there is significant support around the Council table for the City to attempt to secure the ?highest and best use? for this important purpose-built facility,? the memo added. ?I look forward to working with my Council colleagues to fully explore this opportunity.?

City staff had said earlier this week that the parties were still in negotiations ?to complete and execute a lease agreement.? Council in February approved plans for a 10-year lease arrangement between the city and Beacon, with two five-year extension options.

Under the proposed agreement, each side would have spent more than $5 million to improve the stadium, bringing it up to minor-league standards, and to get a team operating.

Kirkpatrick recommends the city undertake some ?life cycle? work at the stadium this year, which would also require council approval, Watson wrote, adding that the scope of the work was to be presented to the finance committee and council.

There?s a silver lining in the news for the Ottawa Fat Cats team of the Intercounty Baseball League, who will be allowed to play their full 2012 season at the stadium instead of having to find somewhere else for playoff games, which would have been the case if the stadium was being renovated to get it ready in time for the 2013 Double-A season.

The Fat Cats? future at the stadium also remains open, according to the memo.

?Discussions concerning the use of the Ottawa Stadium for 2013 and beyond will appropriately require Council direction,? Watson wrote.

ncockburn@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/NecoCockburn

? Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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