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San Rafael approves one-year NAL lease for Albert Park

North American LeagueThe independent North American League will be playing under some pretty restrictive circumstances at Albert Park in 2012, as the San Rafael (Cal.) City Council approved a one-year lease for the small ballpark.

The terms of the lease, which is expected to bring the city $35,000 or so in revenue, calls for no changes to the 700-seat grandstand, and the team will install 100 or so more seats, bringing total capacity to 800. Temporary concession stands will serve food and beer/wine to the crowd, and permanent netting will replace the chicken wire currently installed in the grandstand. Parking will be free.

If this sounds like a very basic baseball facility…you’re right. Unless owner Centerfield Partners is expecting some of the most spectacular per-caps in the history of professional baseball, we can’t see how a team playing in an 800-seat ballpark can generate adequate revenues to compete in a travel-heavy league like the North American League, which stretches from Texas and Arizona to Hawaii and Alberta.

RELATED STORIES: San Rafael ballpark proposal scaled back to 800-seat facility; San Rafael delays decision on NAL ballpark, as citizens class over merits; San Rafael debates NAL ballpark at Albert Park

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