Mayors across the country — including State College’s — band together to help save minor league teams
Mayors from across the country have launched a task force to ensure their voices are heard in the debate over the future of minor league baseball.
More than 40 clubs, including the State College Spikes, could be at risk of losing their major-league affiliations after this season.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mayor Andy Berke on Wednesday called the proposal “a major league error.” Berke’s city is home to the Lookouts, a Double A team affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. The team is one of the 42 that could be affected by MLB’s plan.
“We have expressed our frustration, not only with the potential to losing our team, but also at not having been part of the process or consulted as this continues,” he said.
The new task force counted about 30 members Wednesday, including interim State College Mayor Ron Filippelli.
“I am participating because minor league teams are important contributors to affordable family entertainment and the economic vitality of the towns and cities where they exist,” he said in an email. “Also, I am a big baseball fan.”
The mayors stressed the economic and social benefits that the minor league teams bring to their communities. Lansing, Michigan, Mayor Andy Schor said his city’s Lugnuts, which are not on the cut list, presence helped spur redevelopment around the stadium. The team also provides entertainment for visitors to the capital city and a place for businesses to entertain.
“When you have players who are in town who are going out and going to our parks and helping out, that is a tremendous social benefit,” Schor said. “This is something that can be shown in economics, but the social benefit — you can’t explain it.”
Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley said the state’s six minor league cities play a big role in baseball’s popularity in the state, which is also home to two big league clubs.
“To have the attitude that I heard the commissioner, when the new commissioner came in, talk about how he wanted to expand baseball and to expand baseball getting to places that are harder to reach — these midsized cities are definitely that,” Whaley said.
MLB’s plan is “questionable for the future of baseball itself, but, also, it puts a really bad taste in the mouth of mayors across the country who have really invested and partnered with baseball as an opportunity for growth in our communities,” she added.
An MLB spokesperson said Wednesday that the league is “proud” of its work with mayors “to promote youth sports and grow the game of baseball.”
“Negotiations with Minor League Baseball are at a very early stage and while no one can predict what the final agreement will look like at this point, MLB’s goals of improving working conditions for Minor League players and protecting baseball in Pennsylvania and local communities across the country remain unchanged,” MLB said. “That’s why MLB has subsidized minor league operations at a rate of hundreds of millions of dollars per year over the past decade.
“It is not Major League Baseball’s goal to eliminate any club in these negotiations, and MLB currently has a plan for every club to continue operations with some level of support. Mayors who want to help improve playing conditions and player development can encourage Minor League Baseball to return to the negotiating table and commit to working in good faith toward a better, more modern working agreement for our two leagues.”
The mayors’ effort is one of several underway nationally and locally to back minor league teams. Members of Congress formed a task force in December. Last week, the Spikes launched a campaign to call for community support.
“We feel like there is plenty of opportunity for us to change the course of these discussions,” said Berke, Chattanooga’s mayor. “That’s why we’re speaking out now.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 1:40 PM.