Negotiations for a potential independent minor baseball league to take the field this summer at the former Price Cutter Park stadium in Ozark have dissolved between Chicago-based stadium owner Horn Chen and Heartland of America Baseball LLC.
Stadium director Brad Eldridge said talks broke down during the past week as the baseball company failed to make any official offers or meet imposed deadlines.
“We had two or three deadlines in the last month for payment to try and get it closed, and they missed every one we had out there,” Eldridge said.
He declined to disclose the price of the payments or the stadium, but said Chen’s terms for the purchase had not changed since February.
“They were still telling people they had a deal out there, basically lying and passing on information and I don’t think we’ve had any conversation with them,” Eldridge said of Heartland.
Art Wilkinson, Heartland’s director for baseball operations and manager of its proposed Springfield team, could not be reached for comment by deadline.
Eldridge said talks for purchase of the stadium are ongoing between Chen and Ozarks Pro Baseball LLC, the company with which initial stadium negotiations originated nearly four months ago.
Ozarks Pro Baseball co-owner Tony Hutchison said the company is still pursuing the stadium purchase for a 2015 opening day. Hutchison added he and co-owner Phil Wilson are in the process of securing additional sites for league play, but declined further comment.
In a June 15 interview, Ozark City Administrator Steve Childers said Ozarks Pro Baseball is current on its monthly $1,000 payment for a lease-option agreement on the land, due to expire Oct. 1, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
“We’re hoping they can at least come through with something by July 1,” Eldridge said, adding Ozark Pro Baseball’s deadline for an offer has been extended through July 15. “We’d like to see some type of movement or look at going in another direction, either to get (Springfield Metro Baseball) back or maybe look at some other tenants. We’re not about to get jilted again from a standpoint of empty promises.”[[In-content Ad]]
