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Royse City Ballpark in Question

Royse City Griffins

The status of a new Royse City, TX ballpark for the Royse City Griffins (independent; Southwest League) is said to be in limbo, with financing difficulties complicating its status. 

Royse City has been planned to be the home of the Griffins of the Southwest League, an independent circuit conceived by Mark Schuster and the Ventura Sports Group. At one point plans for the league were calling for a 2019 launch with six teams, all but one of which would be based in Texas.

A new ballpark was part of the plans in Royse City, but the status of that project is in question. Despite indications last spring that Schuster was close to closing on its site, he recently stated there have been difficulties in completing the financing plan for the ballpark. For its part, the Royse City Community Development Corporation has taken incentives for the ballpark off the table. However, the development corporation will not rule out revisiting the ballpark plans should the financing come together down the road. More from the Royse City Herald-Banner:

Mark Schuster, the developer of the stadium, told the Herald-Banner that the Royse City baseball stadium is currently at a standstill, and admitted to facing some unforeseen difficulties in financing the project.

“Limbo would be an accurate way to describe the situation,” Schuster said….

Larry Lott, president of the Royse City Community Development Corporation, said incentives for the ballpark have been “pulled off the table.”

He, however, added that the development corporation would consider incentives for Schuster if he found the financing needed to get the league successfully started.

Four teams have been publicly revealed by the league so far, but another has run into facility questions. The planned Joplin Miners will not be playing at Joe Becker Stadium in 2019, as the city terminated an agreement with club ownership Joplin Sports & Entertainment–an entity that includes Schuster after it defaulted on the ballpark’s lease earlier this year. However, neither the league nor the city has ruled out revisiting the plans in the future.

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