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Sprindale Minor League Sports Complex and Minor League Baseball Stadium

mcheiss

By mcheiss
in Northwest Arkansas

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KJW Burg

KJW

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Very telling paragraphs in this Wichita Eagle article, if true:

The Wranglers' current lease, which runs through the 2009 season, states if the team breaks the lease early, the city of Wichita has 30 days to purchase the team for fair market value, projected to be around $10 million.

According to Randall Kamm, who resigned as the Wranglers' director of marketing and media relations Saturday night, Dandes told employees in a Saturday teleconference that the Wranglers were not going to allow the city a chance to buy the team.

Joe Pajor, the city of Wichita's natural resources director, said Monday afternoon that stance, if true, could be posturing toward potential negotiations on breaking the lease.

This one's bittersweet, IMO...but I'm still very excited for NWA.

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KJW Burg

KJW

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Two things from today's Demo-zette article:

http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/162352/

1. Have they said much about a "proposed retail and entertainment district" around the ballpark, as is hinted here?

2. They say an announcement could come today...we've been hearing that for awhile but it might be good to keep an eye on www.kansas.com as a conference will happen in Wichita before it does here.

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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Two things from today's Demo-zette article:

http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/162352/

1. Have they said much about a "proposed retail and entertainment district" around the ballpark, as is hinted here?

2. They say an announcement could come today...we've been hearing that for awhile but it might be good to keep an eye on www.kansas.com as a conference will happen in Wichita before it does here.

They've talked about it before. Apparently that's one of the reasons that area was picked. The guy from George's owns a lot of land there. He wanted the ballpark built there so he could have the chance to develop the rest as a retail and entertainment area. Not sure if he talked the city into buying some of his land to put the park there or if her might have actually even given it to them. But I'm guessing on the former.

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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Oh yeah I'm certainly not going to tell anyone to get their hopes up. But I keep hearing that a big announcement could come very soon. Of course that doesn't mean the announcement will be that everything is settled and the team is coming. But I just keep hearing whispers that some sort of announcement is likely to take place soon.

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KJW Burg

KJW

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It's fine, there's nothing wrong with it KJW.

Thanks.

Here's more developments from kansas.com (Wichita paper site):

- Wichita keeps the National Baseball Congress, also owned by the Riches...that's done quite well for the city while the Wranglers haven't.

- Team officials would be open to moving the club after this season is over if they can find a NWA venue until the new Springdale stadium is complete.

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masons_dad1 Town

masons_dad1

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Wichita Wranglers president Jonathan Dandes says a few lawyers' signatures are all that is holding up an announcement about moving the Double-A baseball team to a fast-growing northwest Arkansas community.

Dandes said Thursday he hopes the Wranglers can play the 2007 season at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium before moving to Springdale. But if the team can find a place to play its Texas League schedule next year, Dandes said he would be open to having the team leave after this season.

-Associated Press

How very exciting!

oops almost forgot the all important link. http://www.810whb.com/scripts/archives/get...p?article=12785

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masons_dad1 Town

masons_dad1

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It looks like the mayor of Springdale is haggling with the franchise over complete control of the scheduling of events at the new stadium, arguing that Springdale needs to maintain complete control or lose the tax exemption for the $50 million bond.

It also looks like the franchise is trying to move the National Baseball Congress tournament to Springdale, but that was the bartering tool to release the Wranglers from their contract in Wichita.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/162472/

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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It looks like the mayor of Springdale is haggling with the franchise over complete control of the scheduling of events at the new stadium, arguing that Springdale needs to maintain complete control or lose the tax exemption for the $50 million bond.

It also looks like the franchise is trying to move the National Baseball Congress tournament to Springdale, but that was the bartering tool to release the Wranglers from their contract in Wichita.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/162472/

NWA doesn't have the hotels to support that kind of event. What they're doing is using the NBC as a bargaining chip to get out of the lease without giving Wichita a chance to buy it. The NBC means more to the city than the Wranglers do.

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masons_dad1 Town

masons_dad1

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NWA doesn't have the hotels to support that kind of event. What they're doing is using the NBC as a bargaining chip to get out of the lease without giving Wichita a chance to buy it. The NBC means more to the city than the Wranglers do.

That's what I understood from the presidents comments that the Wranglers could play in Springdale as soon as 2007 as a trade-off agreement that Wichita would keep the NBC. The NBC is owned by the Riches which means the Riches would still have ties with Wichita. The Wrangelrs president said it would be a win-win situation for both cities, but he would like to see the Wranglers and the NBC together in Springdale. But, I agree that 100,000 fans converging on NWA couldn't be supported.

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Tony310 Crossroads

Tony310

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That's what I understood from the presidents comments that the Wranglers could play in Springdale as soon as 2007 as a trade-off agreement that Wichita would keep the NBC. The NBC is owned by the Riches which means the Riches would still have ties with Wichita. The Wrangelrs president said it would be a win-win situation for both cities, but he would like to see the Wranglers and the NBC together in Springdale. But, I agree that 100,000 fans converging on NWA couldn't be supported.

Let me introduce my self my name is tony310, well think were are getting enough hotel to handle some big special events like those.

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KJW Burg

KJW

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That's what I understood from the presidents comments that the Wranglers could play in Springdale as soon as 2007 as a trade-off agreement that Wichita would keep the NBC. The NBC is owned by the Riches which means the Riches would still have ties with Wichita. The Wrangelrs president said it would be a win-win situation for both cities, but he would like to see the Wranglers and the NBC together in Springdale. But, I agree that 100,000 fans converging on NWA couldn't be supported.

With the advent of things like the Westin, it sure seems like someone's trying to prepare NWA for a 100,000 fan onslaught.

Touche, MasonsDad1. :rofl:

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masons_dad1 Town

masons_dad1

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Let me introduce my self my name is tony310, well think were are getting enough hotel to handle some big special events like those.

Welcome to UP and the NWA Forum Tony and thanks for posting. I think you're right about us getting enough hotels and besides the huge hotels planned like the Westin and the Embassy Suites expansion there are smaller hotels (2-4 floors) being built all over NWA. They wouldn't be building so many hotels if they weren't expecting to brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to NWA.

With the advent of things like the Westin, it sure seems like someone's trying to prepare NWA for a 100,000 fan onslaught.

Touche, MasonsDad1. :rofl:

No offense KJW... it just gets hard to keep track of posts when topics are spread out into different threads. I know it was kinda immature to create a new baseball stadium thread, but I couldn't resist. :blush:

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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Yeah certainly great news to hear. I'm not sure where I heard it but I got the impression that Wichita finally gave up trying to fight this. I've wondered if the Riches or whoever is representing them told them that fighting it could very well end up to the lose of the NBC also. The spin on an independant league team probably also helped. To be honest it really could possibly work out better for them. They seemed to be having a hard time showing enough support for a Texas Lague type team.

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