Pacific Coast League approves sale to El Paso group if City Council approves stadium

If there wasn’t already enough pressure on City Council’s decision to build a ballpark, the Pacific Coast League put a bit more them on Tuesday.

Josh Hunt, a member of the MountainStar Sports Group, read an email from the PCL to City Council Tuesday stating that the sale, transfer, and relocation of the Tucson Padres had been officially approved, conditionally, by the League.

The conditions refer to the requirements outlined in the June 26 agreement, including the ballpark, as approved by the City and subsequent concessions made by MountainStar.

MountainStar Sports said the notification demonstrates the consistent working time-frame and adherence to the purchase and relocation process that the PCL has pledged to El Paso all along.

“Since June 26, this is what the PCL, MiLB, and MLB have told us and the City of El Paso: ‘we will honor our commitments,'” Hunt said.

MountainStar Sports Group said on Monday that it expects City Council to honor the approvals and agreements signed by the City on June 26, which gave the Group a full go-ahead to work with the PCL and other entities to purchase the Tucson Padres Triple-A Baseball team.

The full email is below:

Dear Josh,
I’m pleased to report that the PCL Board of Directors has conditionally approved the proposed Control Interest Transfer, Relocation Application and Lease RT involving the sale of the Tucson Padres to MSSG and the relocation of the Club to El Paso for the 2014 season.

The full list of conditions to the approval will be set forth in a letter to you from Branch Rickey. However, because of the timing issues due to the City Council meeting today, I wanted to let you know right away that one of these conditions includes the requirement that the El Paso City Council approve the Lease, Development Agreement and Non-Relocation Agreement on the terms set forth in the Term Sheet approved by the City Council on June 26th and as subsequently amended and updated, at the meeting being held later today.

If you have any questions regarding the PCL Board’s conditional approval, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Steve Smith
PCL Legal Counsel