At least it’s a change from the regular script:

“Our legal people are looking at it and there’s nothing further to be said at this point,” said city spokesman Michael Fitzpatrick. “Presumably, once our people get their heads around it, we can see where it goes from here.”

                                                                                   (Ottawa Citizen, November 7)

One minor ambiguity in the story that should be cleared up: The letter which was delivered “by proponents” of the Can Am League came from Miles Wolff.

Unfortunately, the media devoted to covering municipal affairs will be caught up in the discussion concerning the Mayor’s budget plans and the draft budget which will be presented on, you guessed it, November 14.  Rest assured that the pressure is being kept on the City - if not to see things our way, then at least to deal with the proposal.  Please consider writing or calling your councillor to keep this issue out in front.

Enough with the City beat for today.  An eternity ago, Zak and I visited Grayson Stadium in magnificent Savannah, Georgia.  At the time, I mentioned that the post I’d written was useless without photos.  At long last, here they are.

Note the Spanish moss hanging from the oak trees.

Dedication plaque, 1941.

Another shot of the front of the stadium.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get inside and the photos taken through some of the breezeways didn’t turn out.  One more reason to head south asap.

Every trip south of the Mason-Dixon Line strengthens my resolve to move to the southeastern US.  Yes, there are hurricanes and health care is different -  there’s just something about this part of the world.  Certainly the proximity to Walt Disney World is helpful and the weather is (for the most part) favorable, but there really is more to it than that.   There’s a real vibrance in cities like Savannah, an energy that I find lacking back home.  It’s  most starkly brought into relief during trips away from Ottawa.  Is Ottawa, as Ken Gray posited in yesterday’s Citizen, a City without a soul?  It’s probably not as vanilla as he paints it, but it is missing something.

Clearly, this post is useless without photos - I brought the camera but not a USB cable.  In any event, we went by Grayson Stadium today, the home of the Savannah Sand Gnats, the single A affiliate of the New York Mets in the South Atlantic League.  I’ll have to add the photos, but like Centennial Field in Burlington, this place is amazing.  We weren’t able to get in, but through a gap in the fence we were able to see they’re in the process of putting in new sod.  The stadium itself seats about 5,000 and was constructed in 1927.  What I had not known until just recently was that Miles Wolff was a GM here when the team was the AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves  (the Savannah Senators?).

It’s a beautiful baseball venue, in a beautiful city.   That much at least, reminded me of home.

Not calling anyone out, but here’s the problem when one side decides to fight their case in the media and one won’t:

October 8, 2007
Dear Mr. Pecor and Lynx organization:I’m a longtime Lynx fan, hoping, like many others in this City, that there will be a quick and smooth transition from Triple A baseball to a good try at Can-Am ball.I have been impatient with City Hall and Council because they have appeared to be reticent to enable the switch while the opportunity (and Can-Am offer) still exists. Generally I’ve thought that mostly the City was the one playing hard ball. It seems it would be reasonable for the City to agree to handing over the keys to Mr. Wolff’s organization, drop or moderate the claim about debts owed by the Lynx organization, and avoid a costly retaliatory court case related to the parking issue and other contractual obligations.However, I also expect the Lynx organization to engage in this discussion in good faith. The LeHigh Valley Iron Pigs organization currently is linking their team statistics to the Ottawa Lynx statistics page. [ See: http://ironpigsbaseball.com/ironpigs/statistics/ ] That’s a pretty clear indication to me that the Triple A League has officially passed the baton from Ottawa to the IronPigs organization. That’s more or less what the City of Ottawa is also saying, and a reason for issuing their most recent ultimatum. I think there is frustration at the Council level that the Lynx are not being entirely transparent.So if the transition has happened in everything but a public statement, then the only thing to be lost by further delay is baseball continuing in Ottawa at the Can-Am level. If the Lynx have moved on, then make it official and then negotiate the conditions of transfer with the City of Ottawa. If you wait until spring, what is gained? Certainly the chances of Can-Am ball in Ottawa in 2008 are more than likely dashed. Come on, you guys are baseball fans, so let’s get this moving.Robin Collins
Ottawa                                                                                                              [Posted to Facebook group, October 8]

Remember what Miles Wolff said in his letter that was posted over on The Team 1200’s website:

In a meeting in April with the Mayor and City attorney, the Lynx, represented by Ray Pecor and Kyle Bostwick, promised to drop the lawsuit immediately if the city dropped their claim of $2,770,000 for the promissory note. The Can-Am League was present at that meeting to state that they were ready to take over the Lynx’s lease and fulfilling all obligations of the lease other than the promissory note.                                                                                                                   [The Team 1200, September 26]

So don’t think the Mayor and the rest of City council aren’t aware of what’s going on.  And an admission by the Lynx that they are leaving won’t help the Can Am League bid - quite the opposite: 

IT WILL KILL IT.

According to the Mayor’s office’s email to my family:

“Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the future of the Lynx Stadium.

Presently the Ottawa Lynx have two years remaining on their lease at the Coventry Road facility and despite recent media reports we have not been officially informed that they intend to breach their contract at this time.

Until such time as the Lynx breach their contract, discussions regarding the future of this facility would be premature yet we continue to review our options for the long term use of this facility.

The Mayor’s goal is to ensure that we protect the interests of the taxpayers while continuing to make this facility available for the enjoyment of the citizens of Ottawa. I continue to follow the developments and hope that we may find a solution that fulfills both of those goals.

Sincerely,

Lynne Manion
Administrative Services Coordinator
Mayor’s Office, City of Ottawa”     [emphasis added]

If the Lynx declare they are going to leave, the City has made it very clear that they will consider that a breach of the operating agreement.  I posted up on this subject here, but I’ll reiterate: if the operating agreement is breached or lost, it’s open season down at Lynx Stadium - they’ll hang out a sign saying “Come one, come all” like they are they should be with Landsdowne Park.

To paraphrase, oh what the hell - to quote uber-blogger Neate Sager:

“The highlights (or lowlights, if you pay taxes in this city) of the letter’s claims (and thanks again to Carl Kiiffner at Ottawa Lynx Blog for the heads-up):

• The Lynx, with Can-Am reps in tow, went to the city last April and promised to drop its $11-million lawsuit against the city over the selling off of Lynx Stadium parking spaces “if the city dropped their claim of $2,770,000 for (a) promissory note” owner Ray Pecor signed when he bought the team in 2000.That sounds like a fair compromise — but the city apparently dragged its feet.
• About that $2.77-million note or “leaving town tax”: The Lynx says it’s interest on the money the city borrowed from the old city of Nepean in the early ’90s to build the ballpark.How can anyone owe money to a lender that now longer exists? Better yet, why would this city hold someone over the coals when it might even cost taxpayers even more for the city’s lawyers to do the examination for discovery, the research, the preparation and court time to fight the Lynx lawsuit. That’s before any potential award that a judge might give to Pecor, who appears to have a fairly strong case.
• As previously noted, the stadium would become home offices and home field for Baseball Canada, which currently has no such facility (bloody scandalous for a country that played for a medal in baseball at the last Olympics and has close to two dozen major leaguers.) How can the local government in the nation’s capital not bend over backwards to help a sport so many Canadians have played and enjoyed for more than a century, especially when it costs them nothing?Try being Miles Wolff. He’s a man from North Carolina appealing to us on grounds of Canadian patriotism, and he’s getting the response, “Well, emmmmmm, maybe, I don’t know.”
• The Lynx offered to turn over “nearly $1 million in assets in the stadium” to the Can-Am League team. It could have been a “turnkey operation,” to borrow the phrasing Wolff used when he was here to meet with city councillors on Sept. 13. Instead, this is dragging out and that equipment — office furnitures, concessions — might have to be liquidated if the Can-Am League isn’t here in May 2008.
• We now understand why general manager Kyle Bostwick has had to play it so coy up until now with whether the Lynx are leaving — they can’t risk that $2.77-million leaving town tax:”The Lynx are prepared to notify the city if the city will assure them that the interest payments are no longer due. The city will not make these assurances. Therefore, the stalemate will drag on, and it will be April when the first game should be scheduled before the Lynx are officially in violation of their lease.”

                                                                                                                  [Out of Left Field, September 26]

The real question in my opinion?  What happened between April and August, when things went from an 80-90% certainty of the Can Am League coming here, to less than 50%? 

Please don’t lose sight of the ball here, and don’t put pressure on the wrong people or lose sight of who the “Friends of Can Am Ball” are.

The news about Lansdowne Park continues to provide both context and an insight into the workings of City Hall - particularly with respect to the use of City owned facilities.

“During my eight months as chief of staff to the mayor, not a month would go by without some group heading in to see staff in the mayor’s office, with artist’s renderings in hand, to promote their solution to save Lansdowne…

City council now has a rare opportunity to make a decision on the future of Lansdowne Park. The present proposal is community-driven, consistent with city development policies, transforms an abused city asset, is a win for local residents and all taxpayers and is a forward-looking step worthy of our status as the capital city of a G8 nation.

                                                                                    Walter Robinson, Mayor Larry O’Brien’s former Chief of Staff
                                                                                    Ottawa Citizen, September 29, 2007

Couple of things.  Given Mr. Robinson’s claim that there was a revolving door of business proposals for Lansdowne, it seems reasonable to conclude that there was likely more than the two we know about for Lynx Stadium.  We’ve known for some time that the Can Am League and the Lynx thought they had a done deal - a deal which included a resolution of the lawsuit, only to have the rug yanked out from under them at the last minute.  They’ve never been offered a reasonable explanation, which leads to speculation as to what went wrong.  As the title of the post suggests, one wonders if the City was happy to deal with Mr. Wolffe and entertain his plan - until a better one came along.  Was the Ottawa Stadium Group proposal that “better one”?  And what happened to the formal proposal that they were “days away” from submitting last Friday?  We haven’t heard.

And what about the process itself?  It appears that it’s within the ambit of the mayor’s office.  Which is not to say that everyone is, or should be happy about it.

“For their part, the Glebe Community Association and the Federation of Citizens’ Associations, an umbrella group that represents the interests of more than 80 community associations across the city, is concerned that Mr. O’Brien has been holding unilateral talks with developers.

They say Mr. O’Brien has been privately discussing the developers’ proposal with the business owners. Particularly troubling, they say, is the developers’ claim that Mr. O’Brien told them they couldn’t develop a part of the area — “that it was all or nothing.”

“The idea that the mayor decided it’s all or nothing is astounding,” said Bob Brocklebank, president of the Glebe association. “I don’t think he has a right to do that, and other people, both public and on council, will have different opinions on that. It’s not a decision he should be making alone.”  (emphasis added)

                                                                                                           (Ottawa Citizen, September 29, 2007)

Our hope now is to find out as much as we can about what derailed the Can Am bid, and what we can do to fix it.  The clock’s running.