Based on a Nashua City Council meeting last night, the Nashua Pride will be back, but might be renamed. Mr. Stabile did list the team for sale, and a new ownership group, with Dan Duquette (Pittsfield Dukes) and some other guys from the NECBL, will buy the team.
The last hurdle, renegotiating the lease with Nashua to let the owners put in some additional games with a military all-stars team ($1000 a pop) and up to 4 concerts ($2500 to the city). The new owners want the name to be the American Defenders, to stress the military tie-in--and have reportedly also signed for 3 years.
To follow this soap opera, go to nashuatelegraph.com, then click on Sports, and lastly click on Pride.
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You can't click on Pride now; it's been grayed out, presumably in deference to the new owners' desire to rename the team. Cone Man tells me they have upped for the full 3 years. The soap opera isn't over; it's just continuing under a new name. Initial indications are that they're not sweeping aside the front office, which is good. As well as other attractions at Holman (concerts and a military All-Star team playing exhibitions), I read that the owners are contemplating getting an agency to sell ads to national companies, rather than just getting the local taxi company to place a script praising Our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll surely be in the stands again most of the time (maybe not Fridays, when kids are let in for free--Kids don't belong at baseball games!) and I hope y'all will continue to come up.
--Spike
And from today's Telegraph: The Can-Am League has accepted the change in ownership, the closing is set for 15 October, and the new guys are indeed in for 3 years.
But the owner of Ottawa says he is declaring bankruptcy, and in any case Ottawa has new plans for the land the stadium is on after next year. Tom King speculates that the Can-Am League may bring back a traveling team.
PS--Nashua has approved money for the Broad Street Parkway. This would be a fast way to get from Exit 6 (Exit 7 is the street that Holman Stadium is on), past Holman, then quickly veering right across the Nashua River and into downtown. If you've ever shot past Holman, you've wound up at the Library Hill bottleneck at the north end of Main Street. Not clear how this will complicate getting to Holman next year.
--Spike
Hey Spike-
I can't believe you said that about kids shouldn't be at baseball games. That was mean. I went to all the Spirit games and a lot of Red Sox games. Most of the time I stayed in my seat & watched the game. I paid attention to what was going on the field except when I had to keep getting up so adults could get out to go get their stupid beer and then get out again to go to the bathroom because they drank too much beer. Geesh.
Anyway it makes me sad to see Independent baseball change so much. I still miss the Spirit and going to Fraser Field.
Victoria...That was a joke, and it seems a pretty obvious joke.
Valid point that beer-swilling adults are sometimes every bit as distracting as kids (mostly day-campers) swarming into and out of their seats for some promotion. The Cone Man suggested to me last year that Fraser was the only NECBL venue that sold beer; don't know. They say that the reason beer goes through you so fast...is that it doesn't have to stop to change color.
--Spike
...or, that nobody ever really buys beer, you just rent it ;-)
Tom King in the Nashua Telegraph reports that the sale of 60% of the Pride closed on schedule and the Nashua Can-Am franchise is now at AmericanDefenders.us (pretty, but no content yet).
--Spike
Ouch! There is but one word for that site: FUGLY.
Wooden, there's content up on the Defenders web site now, so that isn't as "fugly" as before. I talked to Chris Hall yesterday; he's still at his desk and still wheeling and dealing to assemble a good ballclub, this year with Valdez in the starting rotation. Have also talked to a few fans who wonder whether the military emphasis will detract from the fun. It seems like this will be the same Pride experience--but how do you throw away a brand that people have spent 11 years to put value behind?
--Spike
Spike - I would agree with you. Duquette, et al aren't your vain businessmen playing with a favorite toy; they're baseball guys first and foremost. But the site is still slow and cumbersome, like something designed w/o any usability testing.
PS--In contrast to a previous comment of mine, NashuaTelegraph.com now has a "Defenders" tab (though on some pages, it is still "Pride" and grayed out) and Tom King is still on the beat and filing occasional stories.
--Spike
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