NASHVILLE — Ever for the reason that Lowell Spinners grew to become a casualty of Minor League Baseball’s contraction in 2020, hope has lingered that the franchise may someday make a return. Local and state officers have labored to assist make {that a} actuality, and the Red Sox have notably refused to shut the door on the likelihood.
Yet whereas wanted renovations are coming to LeLacheur Park, the prospect of a Red Sox affiliate returning to Lowell appears to be dimming.
Since the Spinners folded almost 4 years in the past, LeLacheur Park has sat principally vacant. The 25-year-old facility continues to host the UMass Lowell baseball group, however missing both a full-time minor league affiliate and even an impartial membership, the park has fallen right into a state of disrepair.
That could quickly change. In July 2022, the City of Lowell agreed to promote LeLacheur Park to the UMass Building Authority for $1 million, successfully handing management of the power to UMass Lowell. The deal additionally requires the college to speculate as much as $3 million into the property over 5 years, although UMass President Marty Meehan stated on the time he anticipated to make an preliminary funding of $5-7 million to cowl deferred upkeep and wanted enhancements.
Meehan additionally stated he envisions the reinvigorated LeLacheur Park because the centerpiece of UMass Lowell’s East Campus redevelopment, and {that a} bigger renovation may very well be potential if the brand new East Campus generates enough non-public funding. The final hope is to draw a brand new skilled membership, ideally a Red Sox affiliate.
According to Jonathan Strunk, UMass Lowell’s government director for Communications Strategy, the deal closed this previous April and renovation plans at the moment are being developed.
“We completed some small, but important, repairs focused on building code compliance to ensure things were good to go for our 2023 baseball season,” Strunk wrote in an e-mail to The Herald this week. “But the larger work articulated by the agreement is still in the early planning stages.”
Strunk stated plumbing fixtures and fireplace alarms acquired repairs.
The upcoming renovations will make a distinction, however they’ll fall far wanting the upgrades wanted to convey LeLacheur Park into compliance with Minor League Baseball’s new facility tips. An business supply stated this week these prices may strategy $40-50 million, an exorbitant value by any commonplace, however particularly for a public college.
There are different points as properly, together with how a full-season affiliate would share LeLacheur Park with a Division 1 school program and the way parking would work whereas UMass Lowell’s courses are in session. Those weren’t an issue earlier than as a result of the Spinners had been a short-season affiliate whose season was confined to UMass Lowell’s summer time break.
But the most important downside of all? Time is probably not on Lowell’s facet.
The solely Red Sox affiliate which may conceivably transfer to Lowell is the Salem Red Sox, Boston’s Low-A affiliate close to Roanoke, Va. The Salem Red Sox had been bought from Fenway Sports Group final winter by Diamond Baseball Holdings, a deep-pocketed group that now owns three of Boston’s 4 associates and 29 golf equipment throughout Minor League Baseball, and after this season the membership’s lease at Salem Memorial Ballpark is because of expire.
Theoretically that’s all excellent news for Lowell and would seemingly open the door for a possible relocation, however Diamond Baseball Holdings CEO Peter Freund stated this week on the Winter Meetings that whereas no agreements have been reached, his group and Salem officers are actively in negotiations for a brand new lease.
“We don’t have an agreement but we’re committed to the Salem/Roanoke market, the Red Sox are committed and we’re going to do a great job to continue doing what we do there,” Freund stated.
One approach or one other Diamond Baseball Holdings must make investments cash within the Low-A membership’s services, as Salem Memorial Ballpark wants work as properly. The bother is, sources say the price of bringing that facility in control can be far lower than what it might price to overtake LeLacheur Park, and with the lease as a consequence of expire at season’s finish, a call should come quickly.
Should a lease settlement with Salem come to fruition, it might successfully shut the door on a Red Sox return to Lowell, not less than any time within the close to future.
That doesn’t imply baseball received’t finally make a comeback within the Merrimack Valley. The Vermont Lake Monsters, a former New York-Penn League rival of Lowell’s, had been additionally a sufferer of MiLB contraction and have since loved a profitable transition to the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The Spinners may make an analogous comeback as a summer time collegiate or impartial membership, and the deliberate LeLacheur Park renovations may additionally open different new potentialities as properly.
But so far as the Red Sox go, it’s trying prefer it is perhaps sport over.
Source: www.bostonherald.com