Hammons Field waits until next year

by Eric Olson

sbj News Editor

eolson@sbj.net

It is early August and Hammons Field is empty. Aside from a few city high school baseball games, Hammons Field is not seeing near the summertime activity expected of a brand new $32 million ballpark.

If things go as promised, however, it could be a much different atmosphere this time next year.

"We will field a team in the Texas League next year, April 1 of 2005," said John Q. Hammons, the ballpark's owner.

Hammons first said a Texas League club would occupy his stadium earlier this year, but now he's narrowed it down to a National League affiliate from the Double-A league. Negotiations are finalizing, he said.

"I'm still not at liberty to tell it, but it should be revealed in the next four to six weeks," Hammons said.

The announcement is reserved for the owners of the team that would lease Hammons Field. Baseball rules prohibit Hammons from owning a professional team because he has interests in casinos Harrah's near Chicago and one in Reno, Nev.

Hammons said the team is waiting to announce its move in order to avoid an attendance dip at its current home. The Texas League regular season runs through Sept. 5.

"Let's be frank about it," he said. "They may be moving a team from another city, so that's not fair."

But based on Major League Baseball rules, Hammons and the ball team's owners have missed the relocation deadline by at least a year, according to Texas League President Tom Kayser.

"There is a rule on the books that states a club expressing an intention to relocate must do so 18 months prior to the start of the season in which they intend to be in the new city. It's a rule that applies to everybody," Kayser said, referring to Rule 10.06 in the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues Agreement.

Kayser said that no Texas League teams have filed a relocation application in his office.

Aside from the 18-month relocation rule, teams must get approval from baseball's hierarchy: Major League Baseball commissioner's office, Minor League Baseball President Mike Moore and a majority vote of owners in the team's league, according to Steve Densa, Minor League Baseball's assistant director of media relations.

Densa said Minor League Baseball's president could grant permission despite an untimely request if a unique or emergency circumstance exists.

Kayser said all three team moves during his 13-year tenure as league president have fallen within the 18-month relocation guidelines.

"There is an absolute process that has to occur, most especially league approval," Kayser said. "Based on what I know, there is going to be no change in the structure in the Texas League in 2005."

Is Hammons pulling some strings to get a team here next year?

"Don't worry about that," Hammons said. "I told you I'll have a team playing in here in April 2005. I didn't put up $32 million without knowing where I was headed."

It's a guarantee Springfieldians have seen and heard since construction of the park began in August 2002. A sign posted outside the construction site stated it would be home of a minor league team. And on opening night April 2, Hammons reiterated that promise to more than 9,000 fans, saying that Double-A baseball would be played in Hammons Field next year.

Since then, speculation has swirled. At one time, it was a sure bet that the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate El Paso Diablos, which was looking to move due to low attendance, was headed to Springfield. Those talks have fizzled after Diablos representatives told its City Council June 9 that the team was not for sale and would not leave El Paso, according to the El Paso Times.

Other talks in baseball circles have the St. Louis Cardinals Double-A team moving to Springfield. Brad Eldridge, executive director of the Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission, has heard these rumors firsthand. Eldridge is formerly Wichita Wranglers assistant general manager and still has friends in the Texas League.

In that scenario, the Kansas City Royals Double-A Wichita Wranglers team would drop its affiliation and contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, which has its Double-A team, the Tennessee Smokies, near Knoxville, Tenn. The new Cardinals team, would relocate to Springfield and play in the Texas League, Eldridge said.

"If (Hammons) was adamant about getting the Cardinals, that's how it would have to occur," Eldridge said.

A long shot scenario has the St. Louis Cardinals ownership acquiring the Double-A squad in Springfield, Eldridge said. "Of the 160 affiliated baseball teams, there are only five or six that I know of that the (major league) team actually owns the minor league team and those are all at the Rookie League level," Eldridge said. "It's just very, very, very rare, and especially in the higher levels."

Eldridge also doesn't rule out El Paso making a last ditch effort to skip town for a brand new stadium in Springfield.

It appears the dealmakers have done a good job working quietly; Kayser said he has heard none of these talks. "I hear lots of things, but I hear nothing from anybody within my league," about moving to Springfield, Kayser said.

Even at the league's June 20 summer meetings, Kayser said there was no discussion of moving a team to Springfield. "Springfield was a non-subject."

According to Hammons, the park has been the talk of many minor league team owners and general managers. He said seven Double-A and three Triple-A team owners have visited this year to talk about playing at Hammons Field.

Regardless of which team moves in, one that pays year-long rent is essential in meeting the park's approximate $2 million annual debt service, Eldridge said.

To construct the park, Hammons borrowed $6 million from Springfield, financed through taxable bonds, and the remainder was financed elsewhere. Hammons owes the city $195,000 by Dec. 1, and $545,000 next year in two installments, according to Mary Mannix, Springfield's acting director of Finance.

Based on Eldridge's experiences in Wichita and as former general manager of the Springfield-Ozark Mountain Ducks, a minor league team should fetch about $1 million in annual rent at Hammons Field, Eldridge said. Hammons leases the stadium to Southwest Missouri State University for $100,000.

"I'm pretty confident that he is going to get a team for next year," Eldridge said. "It's just that he's had to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get it here in the last minute."