Ripken A Potential Buyer For Minor League Team’s Ballpark
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Ripken Looking Into Acquisition
Of Minor League Ballpark
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Ripken Stadium, the home of the Single-A New York-Penn League Aberdeen IronBirds,
is “such a financial drain” to the city that Mayor S. Fred Simmons “wants to sell
it,” according to Justin Fenton of the Baltimore SUN. Simmons said that he has
had “conversations with several potential buyers but that the most promising involve”
IronBirds Owner Cal Ripken Jr., whose youth baseball program has its headquarters
nearby. The IronBirds pay $1 annually to use the ballpark, and the club “keeps
virtually all of the money generated from games.” An adjacent development project
“that was counted on to help pay for the stadium ... has been delayed,” and the
city annually loses “several hundred thousand dollars -– a significant problem
for a city with an annual budget of only $16[M].” Chris Flannery, who is representing
Ripken in the process, said, “The operating expenses of the stadium would never
have been completely offset by the income of the stadium. Just as you find in
many other minor league parks (and) arenas, the stadiums themselves are not a
break-even proposition, but become a catalyst for growth and improve the overall
tax base” (Baltimore
SUN, 3/25).
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