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Fish Story
Bluefish owners' plan to field Yonkers nine stirs opposition
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Business New Haven
1/6/2003
By: BNH
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Co-founders and investors of the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball team would like to found a new minor league team in Yonkers, N.Y. But the idea is not yet a hit with everyone.
Husband and wife Jack McGregor and Mary Jane Foster are the primary investors in a new Atlantic League baseball team that would play its home games in downtown Yonkers.
McGregor and Foster own the team franchise rights, and top Yonkers officials have backed the plan.
But the city's pledge to purchase, or seize, property for a new stadium has run into opposition from 19 Yonkers business owners who would be relocated under the overall $43 million deal. Those businesses include a number of retail stores, according to published reports.
Reflecting the growing opposition, the Yonkers City Council last month postponed a vote on a resolution authorizing the purchase of land for the stadium.
According to Foster, the state of New York has agreed to provide $15 million toward the $25 million stadium. Private investment would make up the difference. The stadium would be owned by the city of Yonkers.
Another $17 million is earmarked for retail development near the ballpark.
Foster and McGregor found the going significantly easier six years ago when they established the Bluefish team along with current owner Mickey Herbert, one-time CEO of Physicians Health Services.
Park City officials agreed to use eminent domain to seize land for a new baseball stadium, and the state provided most of the money to build the Ballpark at Harbor Yard. The team was successful from the outset, drawing large crowds to downtown Bridgeport.
Herbert is now majority owner of the Bluefish, as well as a director of the independent Atlantic League. He was involved initially in talks with Yonkers officials, but later decided not to pursue the project.
Herbert told the Connecticut Post that he, Foster and McGregor jointly owned franchise rights to a new team in Westchester County. When Herbert decided not to pursue the Yonkers deal, McGregor and Foster exchanged some of their equity in the Bluefish in exchange for sole ownership of the Yonkers rights. McGregor and Foster now own about 13 percent of the Bluefish, Herbert said.
Herbert also told the Post that the New York franchise rights expire next year if McGregor and Foster cannot field a team. To accomplish that, they must break ground on a new stadium by the spring. However, if the deadline is missed, Herbert said, that the league would likely extend the deadline by 12 months.
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