With the first offseason of new ownership underway, the Florence Freedom (independent; Frontier League) are moving forward with plans to rebrand for the 2020 season.
Over the summer, the group Freedom Baseball Club LLC finalized its purchase of the Freedom. The contingent includes four local businesspeople: David DelBello, previously of Procter & Gamble and president of DelBello Holdings; Brian Bortz, president of Towne Building Group; Danny Heilbrunn, owner of DJH Management; and Matt Kappers, managing director at Concordia Financial Group.
Leading up to the 2020 season, the group will change the Freedom’s name. Plans to rebrand the team were announced this week, and a platform for fans to submit suggestions for a new name has been launched on the club’s website. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:
The team organization announced Oct. 2 the Freedom name would go away, effective immediately. Fans will get to choose the new team name as part of a contest online at https://www.florencefreedom.com/nametheteam. Submissions will be taken until Oct. 16, and the grand prize winner will receive a pair of lifetime season tickets to the team.
“We want everyone to know it’s a whole new ball game in Florence,” said David DelBello, part of the new ownership group and chief executive officer of the franchise. “We want to create an atmosphere of entertainment and excitement. We want to recreate the buzz of having a family night out at the ballpark. We want to bring back fans who haven’t been here in a few years, or maybe have never been here. We want our fans to be engaged. We want this new brand to be recognized throughout the Tristate and the kids to smile when they see our logo and our name.”
Freedom Baseball Club LLC purchased the club from Kim Brown. She had been leading the Freedom since the January 2018 passing of her husband Clint Brown, who purchased the club out of bankruptcy in 2004 and helped turn it into one of the steadier operations in the Frontier League. The Freedom have played at UC Health Stadium since 2004, when the facility debuted under the name Champion Window Field.
RELATED STORIES: Florence Freedom Sale Finalized; Florence Freedom Sale Making Progress