The newest iteration of the Northern League–the former Midwest Collegiate League–is adding a new Crown Point (IN) team for the 2022 season.
The team will be owned by Ralph Flores, who has extensive sports marketing experience and previously served as a basketball agent and managed foundations for NBA players for a 12-year period.
“Crown Point has built their city around sports,” Flores said in a press statement. “The vision of Mayor David Uran is building beautiful facilities in town and providing opportunities for young people to play sports. Their city is thriving, and one of the reasons for that is the population growth Crown Point has experienced in recent years. The mission of being a capital of youth sports is paying dividends for Crown Point, and we’re ecstatic to add a pre-professional franchise to a community that has embraced athletics.”
The franchise, which will compete at Legacy Fields at Center Ross Park, will hold a name-the-team competition to involve the community in determining the team name. Click here for more information.
“We are thrilled to add a South Lake County franchise to the Northern League,” Commissioner Don Popravak said in a press statement. “We believe the Crown Point community will serve as a great location for our newest team. The Northern League will feature a new name, a wider talent pool, a new team and the same affordable family entertainment our fans have come to expect. I have a longstanding relationship with Ralph and know his leadership will lead to success for Northern League baseball in South Lake County.”
The new team has already done some hiring, adding Samantha “Sam” Salzeider to head up merchandising and gameday operations for the team and Butler senior Andrew Mild, a Crown Point native, as the team’s play-by-play broadcaster. Salzeider has spent the last six years working in the Chicago Sky organization and was recently part of the team’s WNBA championship. Salzeider has served as Director of Retail Operations, Director of Sponsorship Operations, Director of Operations and Event & Marketing Coordinator during her time with the Sky after starting out as a community relations and operations intern. She graduated from Indiana University in 2015 with a degree in sports marketing and management.
Mild spent the 2021 summer doing pregame, postgame and play-by-play for the Windy City Thunderbolts (Frontier League).
The Midwest Collegiate League had been a pure summer-collegiate circuit, but the new Northern League will field teams as an unaffiliated pre-professional baseball league.
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