The City of Aberdeen has rejected an offer from the owners of the Aberdeen IronBirds (Short Season A; NY-Penn League) to handle non-baseball events at the team’s home, a decision that comes as the current agreement nears its expiration.
On December 31, the current license agreement between Aberdeen and Tufton Baseball LLC–the Ripken-backed entity that owns the IronBirds–will expire. That agreement calls for Tufton Baseball to manage non-IronBird events at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium, while keeping revenues and paying the city an annual license fee.
To this point, the two sides have encountered difficulties in discussions over renewing the agreement, meaning that it could revert back to seeing the city manage non-IronBird events at the facility. Tufton was reported to have recently made an offer to the city, with the terms allowing the group to continue handling non-IronBird events and providing the city with 10 percent of revenues. As of earlier this month, the city was said to havel not responded to the offer and was looking at options for an outside firm to handle events. However, it has since been reported that the city rejected Tufton’s offer and is continuing to work on reaching an agreement with the Huntley Sports Group. More from The Aegis:
Early Friday morning, the City of Aberdeen rejected Tufton’s offer of 10 percent of revenues collected on non-baseball events, according to John Maroon, a spokesman for Cal and Bill Ripken, who own the team.
“We were told it was not in the city’s best interest,” Maroon said Friday. “But they haven’t provided us any information with how they’re moving forward in January.”
Nor has the city finalized an agreement with Huntley Sports Group to manage non-baseball events.
An agreement with Huntley will not be affected by the recent sudden death of Dave Huntley on Dec. 18, according to Athan Sunderland, executive vice president of Pinkard Properties, a Baltimore commercial realty firm.
For 2017, Tufton paid a licensing fee of $95,000.
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