Despite having problems with unpaid rent at Edinburg Baseball Stadium, the Edinburg City Council decided to go ahead with lease negotiations with the Edinburg Roadrunners (independent; United League Baseball) for 2013 and beyond.
Problems with unpaid rent at the end of the 2012 season caused the council to terminate the ballpark lease with Edinburg Equities, which owns the Roadrunners, and potentially seek a new tenant via a bid process. At the end of the day there were two bids for the ballpark lease: a $30,000 bid (which also included some profit shating from Ventura Sports, which also owns the Laredo Lemurs (independent; American Association) and Edinburg Equities, which offered a $100,000 lease, profit sharing and utilities. City staff scored Edinburg Equities as making the better bid, leading the City Council to direct staff to begin negotiations on a final lease. One can assume Ventura and Mark Schuster would have worked to bring an independent American Association team to the ballpark, but it’s not clear whether a 2013 launch would have been possible.
Edinburg Equities is owned by John Bryant and Byron Pierce, owners of United League Baseball. They seem pretty intent on continuing operations for 2013 and beyond, especially after shelling out $4 million for LaGrave Field, home of the Fort Worth Cats. Keeping Edinburg is key to the league’s future fortunes: Edinburg/McAllen is a major market, and while the Roadrunners had a pretty subpar 2012 at the box office, drawing just 1,553 fans a game, the Roadrunners have traditionally been a good draw.
RELATED STORIES: Edinburg to let ballpark lease out to bid
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