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RailRiders ownership spat likely to go to court

New PNC Field

An unfortunate decision right before the debut of renovated PNC Field today: it looks like the dispute over who receives the proceeds of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Class AAA; International League) sale will end up going to court.

As you’ll recall, Lackawanna County and Luzerne County are in a dispute over the $14,6 million received after the sale of the team. (Heckuva bargain for Mandalay Baseball Properties and the New York Yankees; Triple-A team are worth $20 million or so, per the marketplace.) Lackawanna County says it’s entitled to all the proceeds and used that money to help pay for renovations to PNC Field. Luzerne County says it’s entitled to half, because the county originally contributed half the money to buy the team and build the ballpark in the first place. The letter establishing the partnership didn’t clearly set out the terms of an exit deal.

This argument has been dragging on for years. And now Judge Richard Saxton says he’s likely to let the matter go to a full trial.

Now, this won’t affect today’s big day for Rob Crain and crew: the renovated ballpark will be unveiled to the public today, and we’re guessing folks used to the old ballpark will be pleasantly surprised by the new one. The Times-Tribune has a nice look at the renovated ballpark. We’ll be there before the end of the month.

Photo by Andrew Cappes; courtesy of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

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