Report: Tucson Padres trying to extend stadium contract up to two seasons
The Tucson Padres on Monday announced plans to stay in Tucson for at least one more season and possibly two, according to a report by Inside Tucson Business.
If the team stays for the 2014 season that could affect plans to have the team start playing in El Paso that season if the team’s sale and move to El paso is approved by the Pacific Coast League.
Tucson Padres General Manager Mike Feder said the team is negotiating with Pima County officials about leasing Kino Stadium for one and possibly two more seasons.
“It’s always been our goal to show the Pacific Coast League that we are a viable market,” Feder said in the article.
The El Paso group hoping to purchase the Triple-A Baseball Tucson Padres made a presentation on Friday in Dallas to the Executive Committee of the Pacific Coast League of Minor League Baseball.
MountainStar Sports Group is the group trying to buy the team. The owner of the Tucson Padres has already OK’d the purchase of the team by MountainStar Sports Group.
“We spent a very productive three hours with the Pacific Coast League today,” Joshua Hunt said in a news release. “We believe we made a positive, compelling case for El Paso as a viable Triple-A Baseball market, and we hope for a favorable response.”
Joshua Hunt said that the Pacific Coast League and Minor League Baseball do not decide immediately on whether or not a team can be purchased and moved.
“We believe we thoroughly addressed all of the League’s questions, and presented the many good attributes of our City,” Joshua Hunt said. “As we have done throughout this effort, we respect the process of the League and Minor League Baseball and will wait for that process to take its course.”
A company associated with MountainStar Sports Group has registered elpasopadres.com, which could be a clue that the Tucson Padres’ Triple-A club will be the team coming to El Paso. The Tucson Padres play in the Pacific Coast League.
Internet registration records show that elpasopadres.com was registered on June 7, 2012 by Franklin Mountain Management.
Scott Weaver and Paul L. Foster, both officers with MountainStar Sports Group, also are managers with Franklin Mountain Management, according to state records. Local millionaire Woody Hunt also is an officer with MountainStar Sports Group.
Friday morning the El Paso Padres website showed the silhouette of a baseball player and the star on the mountain in the sky without the mountain. By Friday afternoon the page no longer showed the image and was just an orange page.
Franklin Mountain Management also has registered elpasobaseball.com. It was registered in 2004, the same year that affiliated baseball left El Paso when the Diablos were moved to Missouri.
Elpasobaseball.com showed the same baseball player and star image as the El Paso Padres website until Friday afternoon.
El Paso City representatives on June 26 debated the merits of approving the proposed baseball stadium on the site of the current City Hall. The measure passed by a vote of 6-2.
To make way for ballpark opening by spring of 2014, City Hall would have to be demolished by early 2013 with a 14-month construction schedule.
Projected cost of the ballpark would be no more than $50 million. The scoreboard would cost nearly a million dollars alone.
