The independent Golden Baseball League will have a team in Palm Springs either in 2010 or 2011.
The independent Golden Baseball League will have a team in Palm Springs either in 2010 or 2011.
The ownership group — not specified by the league, but we're assuming it's the current Orange County Flyers ownership — will negotiate a lease for Palm Springs Stadium, a former minor-league ballpark and a former spring home of the California Angels. (It has had quite the interesting history, first serving as a polo grounds.) Of late the ballpark has been home to the summer-collegiate Palm Springs Power; the team looks like it intends to be back for 2010, but it has worked with the Golden Baseball League in hosting a winter-league team, the Palm Springs Chill.
"We are pleased to reach an agreement with such an impressive and experienced ownership group," said GBL Commissioner Kevin Outcalt. "The team could play in either 2010 or 2011 depending on what they work out with the City of Palm Springs regarding the ballpark facility, or potentially in a ballpark elsewhere in the Coachella Valley. This is a big win for all parties as the league expands into a great market with outstanding professional baseball history, the City is able to receive an increased and true market value for their stadium lease, the fans will enjoy exciting professional baseball with well known players and managers as teams from all over western North America come to play, and the local economy is the benefit of $5M or more in annual economic impact as has been documented in other GBL markets."
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