Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Could prayers be answered? Fredericksburg deal falls apart!

A little over an hour before I left for the road office tonight amid the wonderful forecast for snow,I saw the logo for the Hagerstown Suns and the upcoming 35th anniversary season.
I really like the logo and two things drew me in for a closer perusal.
The first was that you can almost (and sometimes can if I move slightly) see where my seats are under the grandstand.
However,the second was more important-35 years and counting.
Kinda of odd from a team and its owner that has spent the last two plus seasons aching to move away with their public pronouncements and spending money like Jack Benny used to,so I checked the Google search that I do every week or two and found this link that Google said had been put up just fifty minutes before.

Apparently,Bruce Quinn and Diamond Nation have had a parting of the ways and the city of Fredericksburg will not be getting the Suns.
The county of Spotsylvania is mentioned in the article as being interested,but the talks would have to start over,the site would have to be spotted well as the Richmond Flying Squirrels could block any move that is 50 miles from their field-the Diamond and I doubt that they would have the funding in order any better than the city of Fredericksburg.
The Suns have apparently decided to swing the pendulum all the way to the other end as they are going to have a season long celebration with giveaways and promotions "during every homestand",just one season after the least promotionally active campaign that I'm aware of anywhere-not just Hagerstown.
This is a good thing and I applaud them for giving this a try.
The team is now here through 2016 and who knows the status of Bruce Quinn after losing a ton of money over the last few seasons.
Could Quinn have a deal to sell the team to a local group in Hagerstown and just is waiting to announce it?
Could Quinn have decided to throw himself into Hagerstown and see if a turnaround is likely?
That will be tough after the burn it to the ground policy of Quinn's tenure,but the grass eventually grows back after it's been burnt away.
If the team is here for two seasons guaranteed,that means another election and perhaps another chance to talk with the ballot box for a council that will back the team with the old argument of facilities.

One thing among all the uncertainties that I can say for sure is this-It's been a long time since the news on the Suns has been this good off the field!


No comments: