Just in case the subject comes up….

“The best possible solution is the one that costs taxpayers the least and creates the least headaches.”
                                                                [Neate Sager]

“That’s a beautiful park on Coventry Road that the city owns and baseball is the proper use.”
                                                                [Ottawa Citizen Editorial, September 17]

“As for Ottawa, the 2,000 to 2,500 fans prepared to support professional baseball likely couldn’t care less whether the team has an affiliation with a Major League Baseball team. It makes more sense given how uncertain the Ottawa climate can be if the baseball team operated from late May until September. “
                                                               [Howard Bloom, Sports Business News, September 5]

“Right now the Lynx haven’t crossed any lines, and they certainly haven’t given us any notification of their intentions not to return. We can’t do anything with the building until we’re convinced they’re not going to be returning…”
                                                               [Mayor Larry O'Brien, September 5]

“As part of THE DEAL, the Lynx would drop litigation against the city over parking issues. Wolff has long sought a geographic rival for the Quebec Capitales, a team he owns. “Baseball stays (in Ottawa) and everybody is happy,” he told the Citizen of the proposal.”
                                                               [Nashua Telegraph, September 7]

“As the CEO of a publicly traded company, I know that we have to be very careful of every word we say, we have to be absolutely honest otherwise we could wind up in jail. But in politics, it seems you can say whatever you want with the facts even if it’s not true.“
                                                               [Mayor Larry O'Brien, November 7, 2006]

“Here’s the killer: The CanAm League deal has no strings attached. It wasn’t contingent upon finding a local owner, arranging funding or any other proviso. As has been widely reported, they would undertake a five year lease agreement with the City, picking up the remainder of the Lynx lease at the same cost - even though they were only playing 50 games.

Here’s another: Even though he couldn’t guarantee he would have a local ownership group in place, or ANY owner for that matter, the CanAm League would still honor the lease - even if not a single pitch was thrown. The plan was for the “Grays” - a travelling road team with no current home park, to play at Lynx Stadium.”
                                                               [OttawaLynxBlog, September 6]

“Can I, Jim Baba (head of Baseball Canada) tell you that this thing is going to work? No. But if he (Miles Wolff) says he thinks it will, well… you guys should listen.”
                                                               [Jim Baba, September 13]

“This would be “Ottawa’s team” - a group of players who would “compete for the community“, not “to get to the big leagues”.”
                                                              [Miles Wolff, September 13]

************************************************************************************************

And finally, a little taste of Can-Am ball:

Commenter Larry Williams wondered aloud on the previous post: 

It all seems a bit childish when the city councillors say “the Lynx have to ask us first”, instead of simply initiating discussions with the team about a mutual win-win solution.

According to this article, they’ve been having those very discussions.

NASHUA – With the Nashua Pride’s future up in the air, a move north of the border cannot be counted out.

“Baseball stays (in Ottawa) and everybody is happy,” he told the Citizen of the proposal.

(excerpted from the Nashua Telegraph, September 7, 2007)

This is getting crazy.  They know more about this deal in New Hampshire than in Ottawa City Council’s chambers.  Or someone’s not telling the truth….

Major tip of the hat to Patricia for digging up the Nashua story! (I’m going to start cutting and pasting linked stories into the comment fields as many papers archive their stories in a relatively short period of time.)

I detected some amusement on the other end of the line.

“I guess I’m not the first person from Ottawa who’s called today?”

“No. No sir, you’re not.” came the reply, with a thick southern accent.

Unable to sit around and wait for the press to tell me what had happened with the CanAm bid, I was determined to get out ahead of the story. Maybe even to get the story. I had called the offices of the CanAm League in North Carolina, hoping to arrange an interview with League Commissioner, Miles Wolff.

“Mr. Wolff’s not at this location. Let me get you the number.”

Two minutes later I was calling Quebec City, home of the Capitales de Quebec, one of two teams he owns. To my surprise, I was transferred immediately to Mr. Wolff. I was caught completely flat-footed; I just wanted to schedule an interview but due to his busy schedule, he suggested we just do it there and then. What the heck, how many opportunities am I going to get?

I pressed ahead, identifying myself, my m.o., and gave him the blog address. Apparently convinced that I was a “Friend of independent baseball in Ottawa”, he answered the questions in a very straightforward manner. I asked about his thoughts about the recent bid to put a roof over the Stadium and convert it into a soccer/concert venue. It made no financial sense to the commissioner - “You’ll never get that kind of money back.” He was at a loss to explain why the CanAm bid was being shelved; he found out about the Mayor’s change of heart through the media. He characterized Lynx Stadium as the best baseball facility in Canada, “a gem”. The deal that in July seemed to have an “80-90%” chance of succeeding, called for an inflatable dome in winter managed by Thunderbird Management Inc. and soccer would be played in the off-season. The grass would be replaced with the new “Field Turf”. Lynx Stadium would be open year round and would be the home for Baseball Canada.

I wondered aloud if the Stadium Group bid wasn’t just a red-herring, with the City’s real intent being to sell or lease the land for office/retail space. It seemed to touch a nerve.”If that’s the case, why doesn’t the City just sell off all it’s parks and recreation facilities? Stadiums, museums, concert halls - those are what makes a “good” city great. There’s a reason why stadiums are going up in the United States; baseball stadiums can be important.”

Here’s the killer:  The CanAm League deal has no strings attached. It wasn’t contingent upon finding a local owner, arranging funding or any other proviso. As has been widely reported, they would undertake a five year lease agreement with the City, picking up the remainder of the Lynx lease at the same cost - even though they were only playing 50 games.

Here’s another:  Even though he couldn’t guarantee he would have a local ownership group in place, or ANY owner for that matter, the CanAm League would still honor the lease - even if not a single pitch was thrown. The plan was for the “Grays” - a travelling road team with no current home park, to play at Lynx Stadium.

So what went wrong? As recently as two months ago there was a meeting with the Mayor and four or five members of his staff. Mr. Wolff left that meeting with, in his own words, “an 80-90%” certainty that the CanAm League was coming to Ottawa for 2008. The Mayor was on board, his directive to staff was “to make this happen”. And what about that “gag request”? According to Mr. Wolff, there are always political and contractual considerations, particularly in this instance. They were asked to keep it quiet until all the i’s were dotted and the t’s crossed.

I asked what he thought the chances of the CanAm League playing in Ottawa were next year. With some resignation, he now thought they stood at “less than 50%”. They need to know by the end of September what’s happening, with the first week in October being the absolute “drop-dead” date; they have to set their schedule.

My questions then for my local councillor are: “What kind of proposal do you favor - a guaranteed five year agreement or what appears to be a hastily thought out proposal that raises more questions than it answers . Apparently, Mr. D’Angelo of Steelback Brewery fame is NOT on board.

More importantly,

“What kind of Ottawa do you favor - one that preserves it’s recreational spaces at no cost to the taxpayer, or one that sells them off for office space and big box retail?”

The real head scratcher - Why does Jacques Legendre seem now to be in favor of bringing a huge influx of traffic into his ward?

My God. This City never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Mr. Wolff took some positives away from Monday’s game, arguing that it should be regarded as proof positive that people will show up for baseball. And he offered this bit of advice for local fans of baseball: “People who want to see baseball in Ottawa are going to have to let their politicians know. Public pressure is what it’s going to take now.”

This is absolutely brilliant.

Before I go completely off the deep end here, let’s review what we know:

1.  Miles Wolff was supposed to meet with the City today.

2. Yesterday, the City - through councillor Legendre, drops the news that there’s a proposal to put a roof on the stadium.

3.  Yesterday, the City called off their meeting with Wolff and said there would be no discussion today.

Does anybody else sense a little bit of payback here?  Is this actually what’s going on, or am I completely misreading the situation?  Because it seems to me that what’s happening is a direct result of the Lynx having the temerity - the absolute nerve, of taking the City to court for ABROGATING THE TERMS OF THEIR OWN DAMNED LEASE.

So now, instead of having a tenant lined up for the next 5 (FIVE) years - assuming the Lynx’s last year + 4 (FOUR) more, are we now faced with a proposal for a $40 MILLION DOLLAR retrofit and soccer?  And who’s footing the $40 MILLION.  Please, please, please tell me it’s not going to be the taxpayer.  And please tell me that you’ve got an airtight defense for the slam dunk case the Lynx have on the lease issue, ‘kay?  Because I know we’re footing the bill for that one when you lose.  Please tell me that THIS IS NOT WHAT IS GOING ON.

Because if it is, it’s an absolute, unadulterated, cruelly pathetic, needlessly expensive, time consuming joke.

And while I’m at it, here’s a few more questions:

1.) Why is Jacques Legendre doing the heavy lifting for the Ottawa Stadium Group?  Because in light of what we’re hearing today from Mr. Wolff (and despite my comment on Neate’s blog), yesterday’s interview with Mr. Legendre now looks like a barefaced sales pitch.

2.) Why (and when) was the Can-Am league asked “to keep quiet about its earlier proposals to the City”?

3.) Why must this City continuously do things the hard way and embarrass it’s electorate?

Word to the wise, Mr. Wolff.  I understand that you’ve been waiting to hear from the City since June.  Might I suggest you talk to Mr. Pecor? I’m sure he’s got lots to tell you about being jerked around by Ottawa.

Good Lord.  This is brutal.

*** UPDATE ***

The comments left by reader Dave warrant top billing:

Dave Says:
August 29th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Classic GUTLESS move by municipal politicians. A busy man makes time to travel here for a SCHEDULED meeting to discuss a long-term lease for use of a city-built asset in the manner
that the city built it for, and they kiss him off?

Why? Well, they have an agenda. The shuttle-bus business must be good. “How much? 40 million? Soccer? 6 mini-fields? Well, we best get rid of this Wolff fellow then, he has a proven track record of success both sides of the border, and we could be forced to continue collecting rent and taxes like we promised the taxpayers we would back in ‘93…….”

They don’t even have the guts to meet the guy and say “No thank you, and here’s why we don’t
want your fan-friendly brand of baseball in our BASEBALL park, even though we know you have a history of making improvements like full-colour video boards at other leased facilities across North America…….” Childish really, just ignore him and he’ll go away.

Never mind that you CAN’T fit 2 soccer fields on a baseball field or the complete incompatibility of the seating arrangement. I know this, I have designed, built and maintained a baseball field in the past.

This is not the time for a knee-jerk mega-project for the current “flavour-of-the-month” soccer. Here we have a man willing to put his money where his mouth is. He’ll put a team in here for 5 years, pay the rent, pay the taxes, AT NO COST TO ANYONE.

Build your $40 million soccer bubble anywhere, under the power lines, abandoned quarry, hell make it a submarine lexan bubble at the bottom of the river!

Wake up Mr. Legendre, no reason to be bitter or irresponsible with taxpayers money here. Yes, a baseball team is suing the city, and they damn well should, you as much as admit there’s no parking for more than a couple thousand people. That’s YOUR fault (city), YOU invested in baseball by building the stadium and then YOU killed it by submarining the viability of it. But it’s not the potential Can-Am team that’s suing you. It’s not “baseball” that’s suing you. You oughta be tickled pink some guy wants to bail you out of being stuck with an empty ballpark by leasing it long-term AS IS. We as baseball fans oughta get behind this Miles Wolff.

I had hoped to write something worthy of the editorial page, but it’s hot and well, I’m just really pissed to hear about this latest needless “crisis” the city is creating so they can waste more money. I’d just like to take the kids to the ballpark………

Dave? It’s worthy.

*** UPDATE II ***

Someone help a brother out.  CTV basically doesn’t update their website with local news.  I was watching the 6 p.m. news telecast when a power interruption knocked everything out.  All I heard Rick Chiarelli (Chiarelli, grrr….) say was that the soccer/retrofit bid wasn’t even addressed because of the lawsuit and the existence of the current lease - then it went dark… . Anyone got an update?  Anyone….

P.S. Biggest blog day yet with over 200 hits - but precious little commentary.

*** UPDATE III ***

Yeah.  Soccer.  That’s the winning ticket….

Money quotes for everyone who’ll throw the U20 tournament in our face:

“A month after millions of Canadians got swept up in the thrill of the most successful Under-20 Soccer World Cup ever staged, the association that organized it is in tatters.Canadian Soccer Association president Colin Linford quit yesterday, saying any improvement in soccer in this country is doomed unless we can get our act together. “And that won’t happen.”

Here’s the killer:

Mr. Linford said he could not blame Jonathan de Guzman, born and brought up in Toronto, for refusing to play for Canada, picking Portugal instead.

“I hope if a youngster has the opportunity to play for another country, I suggest they take it,” he said.

Emphasis added.

Certainly not the first out of the gate this year, but hopefully, one of the last.  This little bit was ambiguous:

“Ottawa Lynx officials have informed the city of their intent to pull out of the nation’s capital at the end of the 2007 International League season and move to Allentown, Pennsylvania, but the team has not publicly confirmed the move.”

So - are “Ottawa Lynx officials” something different from “the team“?  I suspect not - meaning that the reporter is saying the team has told the City what it won’t tell everyone else.  Somehow, I doubt that anyone in the organization - Lynx “officials” or otherwise, would be willing to go “off the record” with anyone down at City Hall.  Call me cynical.

But on to the broader story - let’s turn Lynx Stadium into a domed soccer facility!  And I suspect I’m going to surprise people here; I’m not entirely opposed to the idea.  Given our druthers, here is the OFFICIAL unofficial Ottawa Lynx blog preferred pecking order of options when it comes to Lynx Stadium:

1. AAA baseball remains in Ottawa

2. Another form of affiliated ball remains in Ottawa

3. An independent baseball league sets up shop

4. Domed indoor soccer

5. Walmart.

I know, I know - you thought I’d put Walmart ahead of soccer.  The fact of the matter is, I’ll choose just about any option ahead of tearing the facility down.  What I dislike about this proposal is the pricetag - $40M is more than twice what it cost to build the blessed thing 15 years ago.  I’m not a stats guy, but I’m pretty sure that outstrips the rate of inflation considerably.  If it’s private enterprise, with minimal public funds committed, and no other willing tenant, have at it.  Otherwise, I think the benefit of the doubt has to go back to baseball, if for no other reason than for 15 consecutive years, baseball has always paid the bills.