More than 500 people attended a pep rally in Dayton,
OH, to hear the city's plans to bring a minor-league team to
the city to play in a new downtown ballpark, according to
Jim Bebbington of the DAYTON DAILY NEWS. Dayton will spend
"more than" $15M to help build a $22.7M, 7,448-seat ballpark
which will be the home of new Single-A team owned by
Mandalay Sports Entertainment (DAYTON DAILY NEWS, 2/24). On
Monday, Mandalay Sports Entertainment said it was closing on
a deal to buy the Single-A affil of the Cubs in Rockford,
IL, and move them to Dayton, where they will play under the
name of the Rockford Reds as a Reds affil for the 2000
season. The city of Dayton is the "largest contributor" to
the ballpark and will sell taxable municipal bonds in early
March to finance construction. Other investors in the team
will include Archie Griffin and NFL WRs Cris Carter and Jeff
Graham (DAYTON DAILY NEWS, 2/24). Mandalay Sports
Entertainment CEO Hank Stickney is featured in a Q&A in the
DAYTON DAILY NEWS and says his sports investors "don't want
to be absentee owners. They want to come in and do anything
they can do. They'll speak. They'll do golf tournaments.
Jeff wants to open up a sports bar" (DAILY NEWS, 2/24).
