Marysville likely
to keep baseball
MARYSVILLE 10/17/02 - Despite shedding a few remorseful tears for the $2 million it has so far lost on baseball aside, the city council still wants to keep its municipal team going. Somehow.
The council heard a detailed report Tuesday on where the dollars and cents went on the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox in the 2002 season, and then voted, 5-0, to assign a special committee to review four options on how to keep baseball alive.
The committee has until Dec. 3 to recommend which of the four options to adopt to give Gold Sox fans a 2003 season. It will also recommend which of three arenas the team might play: in the Western Baseball League, in the collegiate summer leagues, or organize its own "summer series" invitational tournament play.
The last path, though rarely taken, has led to successful baseball in other localities, including Humboldt County, former Gold Sox President Bob Bavasi said.
Whatever shape Marysville baseball may assume, it is unlikely to include playing in the WBL, City Administrator Steve Casey said Wednesday. Recent talks with WBL officials have convinced both Casey and Bavasi that the WBL may not be long for this world - a charge WBL officials have vigorously denied.
Only six teams in the 10-franchise league actually played in 2002, and three of those were reportedly having financial or reconsidering league play, Marysville officials said.
The Chico Heat, for instance, has already announced it intends to leave the WBL to become a "Single A" minor league baseball team, WBL General Manager Sam Pepper confirmed.
"We'll soon be down to a one-team league," Councilmember Paul McNamara remarked during the hearing in which the towns baseball options were laid out.
But WBL General Manager Sam Pepper said later that it was "way too early" to pronounce the league dead.
The 10-team owners are expected to conduct a conference call for Oct. 21 at which time they may decide where the league is headed, Pepper said.
"There may be some reorganization, but no decision has been made," Pepper said.
Marysville's aggregate $2 million loss had Councilmember Jim Kitchen fuming -- but not at the team, its management, or the council, all of which he gave high marks for hard work and honesty in running the team.
Kitchen blamed the fiscal damages principally on owners of the long-gone owners of the Feather River Mudcats, the WBL franchise that moved from Reno, Nev. to Marysville in 2000 and promptly sank beneath a sea of red ink.
The much-mourned Mudcats "weren't under-capitalized. They were un-capitalized," said Kitchen, who teaches economics at Yuba College. "The owners were trying to live off money from the city," he added.
The Mudcats owners declared bankruptcy and departed, leaving behind scores of furious holders of worthless 2001 season tickets, a bevy of vendors stiffed for thousands of dollars in goods and services and a lingering animosity among fans that was clearly reflected in sharply reduced attendance.
The city inherited the franchise in the bankruptcy, and oddly, this ownership may have boxed the city into unfortunate choices, Bavasi said.
"Two years ago if we sat down and talked about baseball in Marysville there is no way we would ever have concluded we should play in the Western Baseball League," Bavasi said.
League financial demands coupled with typical team costs made it impossible for the team to turn a profit or even break even, Bavasi said.
Casey detailed what the city expected and then in reality spent and earned on the team in 2002.
The city projected total expenditures of $812,600 and revenues of $837,600. In fact, it spent $962,800 and earned $304,600 - a gross loss of $622,300, Casey said.
The city, which faces a $190,500 in the coming fiscal year, invested $200,000 from the general fund for the team in 2002. Subtracting one-time expenses, including legal fees, equipment and uniforms, the city ended with a net $221,000 loss, Casey said.
Casey also outlined four options for how the team might operate in the future -- some of which might even prove profitable, Casey said.
The team could continue as a city operation; a third party could own and operate he team; the city and third party could collaborate in running a team, and; the city could disband the team and rent Bryant Field for other baseball activities.
Moreover, the Gold Sox could play in three possible arenas, Bavasi explained.
It could: remain in the WBL, if the league survives; play in a summer collegiate league; or it could invite selected teams to play in a "summer series," Bavasi said.
The "summer series" would be an invitational tournament arrangement currently used by the Humboldt Crabs - offered definite advantages: like collegiate teams, players are not paid and there are no travel expenses.
With those costs cut, the team might actually turn a profit. Moreover, "You can have some really exciting baseball," Bavasi said.
A team operated in collaboration with a third party - a car dealer in own has already made overtures - is the likely option, Bavasi said.
Based in Washington state where he and his wife own the Aquasox minor league team, Bavasi became intrigued when he read about a little town called Marysville that was going to run its own professional baseball team. It was, he said a "magical" notion.
Although Marysville may have since dropped a bundle on its team and the game's magic may have been tarnished a bit in the process, Bavasi remained optimistic.
Asked to sum up Marysville's real baseball situation, Bavasi smiled, "It's still a Disney movie," he said.
to keep baseball
MARYSVILLE 10/17/02 - Despite shedding a few remorseful tears for the $2 million it has so far lost on baseball aside, the city council still wants to keep its municipal team going. Somehow.
The council heard a detailed report Tuesday on where the dollars and cents went on the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox in the 2002 season, and then voted, 5-0, to assign a special committee to review four options on how to keep baseball alive.
The committee has until Dec. 3 to recommend which of the four options to adopt to give Gold Sox fans a 2003 season. It will also recommend which of three arenas the team might play: in the Western Baseball League, in the collegiate summer leagues, or organize its own "summer series" invitational tournament play.
The last path, though rarely taken, has led to successful baseball in other localities, including Humboldt County, former Gold Sox President Bob Bavasi said.
Whatever shape Marysville baseball may assume, it is unlikely to include playing in the WBL, City Administrator Steve Casey said Wednesday. Recent talks with WBL officials have convinced both Casey and Bavasi that the WBL may not be long for this world - a charge WBL officials have vigorously denied.
Only six teams in the 10-franchise league actually played in 2002, and three of those were reportedly having financial or reconsidering league play, Marysville officials said.
The Chico Heat, for instance, has already announced it intends to leave the WBL to become a "Single A" minor league baseball team, WBL General Manager Sam Pepper confirmed.
"We'll soon be down to a one-team league," Councilmember Paul McNamara remarked during the hearing in which the towns baseball options were laid out.
But WBL General Manager Sam Pepper said later that it was "way too early" to pronounce the league dead.
The 10-team owners are expected to conduct a conference call for Oct. 21 at which time they may decide where the league is headed, Pepper said.
"There may be some reorganization, but no decision has been made," Pepper said.
Marysville's aggregate $2 million loss had Councilmember Jim Kitchen fuming -- but not at the team, its management, or the council, all of which he gave high marks for hard work and honesty in running the team.
Kitchen blamed the fiscal damages principally on owners of the long-gone owners of the Feather River Mudcats, the WBL franchise that moved from Reno, Nev. to Marysville in 2000 and promptly sank beneath a sea of red ink.
The much-mourned Mudcats "weren't under-capitalized. They were un-capitalized," said Kitchen, who teaches economics at Yuba College. "The owners were trying to live off money from the city," he added.
The Mudcats owners declared bankruptcy and departed, leaving behind scores of furious holders of worthless 2001 season tickets, a bevy of vendors stiffed for thousands of dollars in goods and services and a lingering animosity among fans that was clearly reflected in sharply reduced attendance.
The city inherited the franchise in the bankruptcy, and oddly, this ownership may have boxed the city into unfortunate choices, Bavasi said.
"Two years ago if we sat down and talked about baseball in Marysville there is no way we would ever have concluded we should play in the Western Baseball League," Bavasi said.
League financial demands coupled with typical team costs made it impossible for the team to turn a profit or even break even, Bavasi said.
Casey detailed what the city expected and then in reality spent and earned on the team in 2002.
The city projected total expenditures of $812,600 and revenues of $837,600. In fact, it spent $962,800 and earned $304,600 - a gross loss of $622,300, Casey said.
The city, which faces a $190,500 in the coming fiscal year, invested $200,000 from the general fund for the team in 2002. Subtracting one-time expenses, including legal fees, equipment and uniforms, the city ended with a net $221,000 loss, Casey said.
Casey also outlined four options for how the team might operate in the future -- some of which might even prove profitable, Casey said.
The team could continue as a city operation; a third party could own and operate he team; the city and third party could collaborate in running a team, and; the city could disband the team and rent Bryant Field for other baseball activities.
Moreover, the Gold Sox could play in three possible arenas, Bavasi explained.
It could: remain in the WBL, if the league survives; play in a summer collegiate league; or it could invite selected teams to play in a "summer series," Bavasi said.
The "summer series" would be an invitational tournament arrangement currently used by the Humboldt Crabs - offered definite advantages: like collegiate teams, players are not paid and there are no travel expenses.
With those costs cut, the team might actually turn a profit. Moreover, "You can have some really exciting baseball," Bavasi said.
A team operated in collaboration with a third party - a car dealer in own has already made overtures - is the likely option, Bavasi said.
Based in Washington state where he and his wife own the Aquasox minor league team, Bavasi became intrigued when he read about a little town called Marysville that was going to run its own professional baseball team. It was, he said a "magical" notion.
Although Marysville may have since dropped a bundle on its team and the game's magic may have been tarnished a bit in the process, Bavasi remained optimistic.
Asked to sum up Marysville's real baseball situation, Bavasi smiled, "It's still a Disney movie," he said.
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