Northern League team gets owner

[Julio]

NORTHERN LEAGUE ANNOUNCES SALE OF CALGARY TEAM TO JEFFREY E. GIDNEY

The Northern League of Professional Baseball announced Friday the sale of its expansion team in Calgary, Alberta to Jeffrey E. Gidney.

Mr. Gidney, a businessman and retailer from Manitoba, will assume ownership of the team effective immediately. Mr. Gidney will also represent the Calgary team on the Northern League’s Board of Directors, which unanimously approved the transaction.

Calgary joins Edmonton in beginning play this season to increase the Northern League’s membership to 12 teams.

“The Northern League is very pleased to make this announcement today,” commented league Commissioner Mike Stone. “Jeff Gidney has had a long and very successful business career in Canada, and he will do an outstanding job of operating this team in Calgary.

“Certainly, this has been a long and, at times, frustrating process to resolve the ownership situation with our new Calgary team. Calgary is very important to our league and all along, we have been committed to finding the right group to deliver a strong and successful product to this market. We feel we have found that owner in Jeff Gidney.”

The Northern League originally awarded the Calgary team on April 3, 2004, to Calgary Professional Baseball, Inc. The membership of that ownership group was terminated by the league on December 10, 2004. The Northern League subsequently has reached a settlement with Calgary Professional Baseball, Inc. for withdrawal of membership from the league.

Mr. Gidney and his group are expected to have a press conference in Calgary next week to announce the team’s name, colors, and logo as well as other details.

Calgary will play in the Northern League’s North Division with Edmonton, Fargo-Moorhead, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Winnipeg. The team opens its regular season on Friday, May 20 at Sioux City. The club’s home opener at Foothills Stadium is Friday, May 27 against Joliet.

The Northern League, the oldest and highest attended of all Independent Minor Leagues, enters its 13th season in 2005.

[Resolute 14]

THANK GOD!

I was so worried that Al Howell and his carpetbagging backers would get the team.

Now, please hurry up and attach a name, players and hope to this franchise.

I've seen Northern League ball in Winnipeg before, and I'd recommend it for any baseball fan in the city. It is good ball.

Just dont expect much from this team in year one, as we are already over a month behind in terms of signing players.

[zarrell]

I really hope the Northern league team does well. I have also been to a few games in Winnipeg and that is fantastic entertainment for the money. Great little ball park too. It would also be nice to get Burns upgraded - a LOT - or maybe even a new 8,000 +/- seat stadium elsewhere.

[moon]

Today on the Big Show Rob Kerr said that the owner had clained that the improvements to the Stadium were 85% done, but Kerr then said he went to the Stadium and nothing looked like it had been done. Who knows what is going on.

Hopefully this is a misunderstading and not a sign of how the team is going to be run.

[Resolute 14]

There is no way to know how the team will be run, as the new owner hasnt had the keys to the franchise for 24 hours yet.

I'm not sure what Kerr meant by the 85% figure, but Will Gardner and Russ Parker were both dead on when they called the City of Calgary an awful landlord. It is absolutley disgusting that Will Gardner and John Ircandia had to spend money out of their own pockets to maintain the scoreboard and paint the effing foul poles, just so the Dawgs would have a semi-passable place to play.

I did hear a mention of a possible new ballpark, but I just dont see who will provide the moeny for it. However, if there is space for it, building a new park by Max Bell would be perfect. Good view, right on Deerfoot, C-train access, and the underutilized Barlow Trail south of Memorial would be a perfect feeder road.

Though I suspect that a new park is very much a dream, and nothing more at this point.

[jam26]

The way I read the 85% comment in the Herald today led me to believe they were saying the ballpark is already 85% ready for Northern League ball (even before the planned upgrades).

[The Familia]

How the hell can Edmonton get a new ballpark but not Calgary? If there is one thing, and only one thing this city has never stepped up to plate on and fails miserable is sporting venues. Burns Stadium is a dump, foothills (soccer pitch) is a dump, McMahon is getting old, and doesn't even fall into an above average stadium. As much as I love the Saddledome, it could still use another upgrade, more specifically to the exterior and the concourse.

It's embarassing the city doesn't put more money into these thigns. We wanna be a world class city, with world class sporting teams, but we don't have the venues to accomplish this. The last time a facility was actually built was the saddledome in 1983. Since that time we have seen a couple renos, but nothing else....21 years and nothing has ever been done since.

[BaronInEdmonton]

If your stupid city had ponied up the money for a new stadium I'd still have the Trappers. Same goes for Vancouver and Nat Bailey stadium.

[Golden Jet]

Originally posted by The Familia@Feb 12 2005, 06:08 PM
How the hell can Edmonton get a new ballpark but not Calgary? If there is one thing, and only one thing this city has never stepped up to plate on and fails miserable is sporting venues. Burns Stadium is a dump, foothills (soccer pitch) is a dump, McMahon is getting old, and doesn't even fall into an above average stadium. As much as I love the Saddledome, it could still use another upgrade, more specifically to the exterior and the concourse.

It's embarassing the city doesn't put more money into these thigns. We wanna be a world class city, with world class sporting teams, but we don't have the venues to accomplish this. The last time a facility was actually built was the saddledome in 1983. Since that time we have seen a couple renos, but nothing else....21 years and nothing has ever been done since.

All Calgary cares about is the Winter Olympics. CODA wants to spends tens of millions to upgrade facilities at COP for elite athletes only.
What about facilities for all the amateur sports in the city?? More outdoor fields & more indoor facilities which we seriously lack. Calgary is a joke compared to Edmonton when you compare facilities.
Spend the money on kids, not on some so called Olympians who have no chance at any medals on the winter world stage.

[Flickered Flame]

Originally posted by BaronInEdmonton@Feb 13 2005, 07:03 AM
If your stupid city had ponied up the money for a new stadium I'd still have the Trappers. Same goes for Vancouver and Nat Bailey stadium.

The fact of the matter is the PCL didn't like the teams up north because of travel. Especially in Edmonton where flights are a complete joke. Secondly did you really think the Eskimos could refuse a 3 million dollar offer for the Trappers...that is some serious coin. Edmonton is not a baseball city anyways...it might have worked if the home games were played from May through August. People in this city have no interest in going to watch triple A ball in April or any other time the weather is lousy.

having teams in both Calgary and Vancouver helped but losing those teams were not the main reason why the trappers left.

[Resolute 14]

Actually, The Eskimos sold the Trappers for $10 million...

Baron is right though. If the Cannons hadnt relocated, the Trappers would still be there. The "get out of Canada" kick didnt start until after 9/11, and it was especially convienent, since Vancouver was already gone, and Calgary was already sold to Albequerque. Edmonton was all that was left, and the nearest team was 1700KM away in Tacoma.

Edmonton was as remote an outpost as Hawaii was in the 80s.

But if Calgary was still there, then there would be two teams close. Makes for a nice, easy eight game road trip for other teams.

This is why Calgary and Edmonton are expansion sisters in the Northern League. If one city doesnt get the team, neither does the other. It's a simple matter of geography.

[Flickered Flame]

Regardless of the amount the Esks received I remember hearing interviews with top PCL officials complaining about the travel...i heard this numerous times when both the Cannons and Trappers were still present in the PCL...I don't doubt that not having one team played a big role but the fact remains the league didn't like the travel to Alberta.

[BaronInEdmonton]

Adding 6 American Association teams (Omaha, Iowa, New Orleans, Nashville, Oklahoma, and Memphis) swung the geography away from the north and west. That's what cause the travel problems. But if Tacoma, Vancouver, CowTown, and Edmonton were in the same division, the Trappers would still be in Edmonton. And the only way for the Canadian teams to stay was for the cities to build new ballparks.

[Thunderball]

I agree with you Baron... the way this city deals with its sporting teams and venues is nothing short of disgusting.

There's no way Calgary should've lost the Cannons... except that the city was too cheap to pony up SOME cash to refurbish Burns.

Calgary also lost its Soccer club, the Mustangs for the same reason, the city was too cheap to spring for field turf for McMahon Stadium, or to pledge any kind of money to fix up the holes called Foothills Stadium and the aforementioned Burns Stadium. We also bulldozed Mewata (a perfectly good stadium) for a skid... I mean skater park rather than fix it up.

Pathetic track record, and god knows we'll never get anything top class until our city quits being all about world-class talk.

(PS: Calgary bid for the 2007 U-20 World Cup along with a few other cities to co-host with Toronto and Edmonton, but because those morons in City Hall are too stupid to realize the positive international implications, we'll probably lose to Kitchener because we have no suitable facility)

[Julio]

Interesting thoughts here from a guy who by the looks of it used to work for the Cannons (amazing what google will find you.)

http://www.geocities.com/hawkerlppc/northern.htm