An investor is in talks with the Red Sox and Waynesboro about establishing a minor league team there, Jimmy LaRoue reports for the News Virginian. Jim Morris is looking to plunk down $20M on a 4,000 seat stadium, but he’s looking for W’boro to chip in some money to make it happen. Though this island of Red Sox nation would certainly love it if the Sox did establish a team here, there’s more than enough cause to think that it ain’t gonna happen. But that doesn’t mean that an independent franchise couldn’t be persuaded to open up a location in our area.
Wow! That would be sooo cool. Well, a bit far away. But then we’d have two near by, one there and one in Richmond. Sniff, sniff, what about poor old C’ville? I guess we just don’t rate. Heck, we can’t even muster a home depot. Don’t get me started…
Wasn’t there some talk a while ago about bringing a team to cville and using the UVA ball park? I enjoy going to the UVa games, but their season runs from winter into early spring and it can very cold in those stands. Either way it would be great to have a team even if it is the Red Sox.
DandyTiger – the Richmond Braves are moving to Gwinnett County, GA (Atlanta suburb) after the 2008 season: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports/baseball/diamond.html
Great idea- it’s so much cheaper to build there with less oversight. More parking, better draw with the valley, and not to far from cville.
I’m in!
Nooooo. OK, I haven’t been paying attention to Richmond news for some time. That would be bad if there were no team in the area. Looks like there is a remote possibility that Richmond could get another farm team. And I guess a similar (i.e., remote) possibility in Waynesboro. Fingers crossed on both counts. And to think, I grew up going to R.Braves games and now I almost never go to Richmond.
Like Perlogik, if they come, I’m in too. Even if the Red Sox. Hey, I quite like Boston. And now that the curse is broken, perhaps there will be more excitement in the team and its farm team.
There’s also the Lynchburg Hillcats – single-A affiliate of (I think?) the Pirates. They’re fun and the stadium is pretty comfy.
The Red Sox have already acquired a minor league team in Virginia. They recently purchased the Class A, Carolina League, Salem Avalanche. (Keep in mind that 2008 Rookie of the Year-to-be, Jacoby Ellsbury, came out of the Carolina League).I’m not sure whether that makes it more or less likely that they’d have any interest in a team in Waynesboro.
As it is, I’ll be making the trip down to Salem to see some games. It’d sure be nice to just head over to Waynesboro after work for some baseball.
Shhh…all you realists are ruining this for the transplanted Bostonians!
In 2001, I got a call from a guy who owns two minor league teams in the south, and he was interested in partnering with someone to start another team in Cville. He was very interested in playing at the UVA ballpark, because it was built, beautiful, and under-utilized. However, the deal breaker was the fact that beer could not be sold, and like it or not, that’s where the profit is in minor leagues. No beer, no ball.