Ryan Rohlinger.......

swinging a very hot bat in the desert!

From today's New London Day:

"The sale of the Connecticut Defenders to a Richmond, Va., business group could be closer to reality at this time next week, as city officials review a request to transfer the existing lease of the Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium to the potential new team owners.

Speculation has been strong that the AA minor league Defenders would be sold to Richmond, which lost its AAA minor league team last year, and that a lower level, short-season Class A minor league team would move to Norwich in its stead.

The City Council will consider a resolution next Monday that would assign the existing Dodd Stadium lease from Navigators Baseball, LP to Richmond Baseball Club LC. A likely condition of the assignment of lease would be that the team pay off the approximately $300,000 owed to the city in back rent.

Other legal details still need to be worked out, said Norwich City Manager Alan Bergren. He said the council would meet behind closed doors to discuss the transaction before voting in open session on the resolution.

Officials from all parties have been under strict gag rules imposed by Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and the Eastern League, all of which must approve any team sale or relocation.

But with the resolution now on the council agenda, Defenders owner Lou DiBella confirmed Monday night that a possible sale of the team to the Richmond group could be completed by early April. He declined to comment on the sale price. DiBella said he would like to see the deal completed by the beginning of the baseball season. The Defenders start this year on April 8 in Portland, Maine. The first home game at Dodd Stadium is April 16.

Joe McEachran, president of the Eastern League, said earlier Monday that the league still has not approved the possible sale of the Defenders to Richmond, which is not even in the league's approved territory, and the Eastern League would want a deal for either a new stadium or improvements to the existing Richmond stadium before allowing a team to move there.

McEachran said likewise, no short-season Class A team has permission to discuss moving a team to Norwich, which remains Eastern League territory.

But officials said the City Council's assignment of the stadium lease to a potential new owner is a necessary first step to those future discussions.

The Defenders definitely would play this year in Norwich, but could move as early as the 2010 season. The lease with the city runs through 2012, but has a buyout provision which would allow the team to move after the 2009 season, paying the city a $140,000 early departure penalty.

DiBella also confirmed that he is working to bring a Class A, short-season minor league team to Norwich for what could be a “seamless transition” from one level of baseball to the other. The new team likely would be a member of the New York-Penn League, which plays a 76-game schedule, 38 home games, from mid-June through mid-September.

DiBella urged Norwich fans to continue to support the Defenders this year to improve the chances of bringing another team to Norwich.

”Likely is Norwich will not have a year without (Major League) affiliated ball,” DiBella said. “There's a lot of evidence that a team with 70 games playing in an industrial park in a ballpark that's not easy to get to has struggled here. A short-season team could do very, very well. The best thing for Norwich would be if Norwich supports short-season baseball.”

DiBella pointed out that the Defenders drew about 200,000 fans even in the declining economy last year, but attendance in the cold months of April and May always was low.

”If a deal is made and the team moves to Richmond and a short-season team moves to Norwich, it would be a win, win for everybody,” DiBella said."


I think this is the first quote from Lou on the subject.