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A Replacement for Ravens?
Bluefish owners may try to bring indie team to Yale Field
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Business New Haven
9/01/2003
By: Michael C. Bingham
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BRIDGEPORT — BridgeSports, a spin-off sports management and marketing company of the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlanticz League, is considering bringing an independent team to New Haven to replace the lame-duck Ravens, probably in 2005.
"It can be done," said Bluefish general manager Charlie Dowd, who is also one of three BridgeSports partners, in published reports. "You have to go in knowing what the challenges of New Haven are. There’s a possibility we may try to bring baseball back to New Haven."
Before joining the Bluefish as general manager and minority owner, Dowd was general manager of the Ravens from 1994-97 under then-owner Edward Massey.
The Ravens, the Toronto Blue Jays Double-A affiliate, are leaving for Manchester, N.H. at the end of the season, mostly because of poor attendance and an antiquated Yale Field.
The lease between Yale and the Ravens requires a professional team to be resident at Yale Field through 2019. The lease has fueled speculation that a short-season independent league team would be an suitable replacement, since there would be no scheduling conflicts with Yale University. The lease is void if the Ravens cannot place a professional team at Yale Field within the next two seasons.
Ravens general manager Adam Schierholz, who is part of a six-member committee searching for a new team, and Dowd spoke August 25 about the possibility of bringing an independent league team to New Haven. They were part of a panel discussion about New Haven baseball’s future at the North Haven Barnes & Noble.
"We could operate two teams within 15 miles of each other," Dowd said. "Frankly, I could do the baseball end for both. You only need one ticket system and one public relations director. We’d be able to operate both businesses a little more efficiently and, hopefully, more profitably."
BridgeSports markets Fairfield University basketball and owns a parking company, a professional lacrosse team, the Bridgeport Barrage, and a cleaning company.
BridgeSports’ partners have already visited Yale Field and had discussions with Yale University as well as with Schierholz’s search group, a subcommittee of the Baseball Foundation of Connecticut (BFC) that includes representatives of the city of New Haven, Yale and the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
Schierholz says his search committee is interested in BridgeSports’ idea, although it is but one of a number of possible options on the table at this stage.
"They’re proposing a Northeast League team, which is a notch below the Atlantic League, but it would all kind of be run out of the Bridgeport office," Schierholz said. "Then you can cut down costs a lot. We’re open to see what works."
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