The Rockford Foresters (summer collegiate; Midwest Collegiate League) will play as a road team in 2013 after losing the lease for Marinelli Field to the Rockford Aviators (independent; Frontier League).
The Foresters played at Marinelli Field for three seasons (2010-2012). No word on what baseball will be played at the former home of Midwest League and Frontier League baseball; the Rockford Aviators (independent; Frontier League) were awarded the lease to the ballpark after a public RFP process (the final vote is slated for tomorrow late afternoon), but we’d expect the venue’s schedule to include youth tournaments and clinics and not summer-collegiate or indy ball, a use clearly favored by the Rockford Park District, which is seeking to boost sports tourism in the city. From the announcement sent out by GM Joe Stefani:
Jay Sandine explained to us in detail that the Rockford Park District was looking for two parties to run the lease at Marinelli Field because that way one could focus on youth tournaments and one can focus on the baseball team. We as an organization agreed to explore this opportunity but that if nothing resulted from it, we wanted our original agreement to go through with our interested group [an unnamed group in negotiations to buy the Foresters]. The Rockford Park District told us that if any deal didn’t go through they were going to cancel our lease and issue a RFP (request for proposal) for the stadium lease at Marinelli Field.
The announcement was made on the team’s Facebook page and in an email to fans.
The Midwest Collegiate League is at six teams for 2013; a schedule has not been released.
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