THUNDER BAY – The city’s compensation agreement with the Thunder Bay Border Cats after the team was displaced for its first 10 home games last year includes nearly $51,000 and multi-year deals to waive the stadium rental fee and the city's portion of concessions revenue sharing.
The Northwoods League club was forced to play those scheduled games in the United States as upgrades to Port Arthur Stadium for that fall’s U18 Baseball World Cup were not complete, making the field not playable until well into June.
Documents obtained by Shane Judge through the Freedom of Information process and shared with Dougall Media reveal the agreement reached between the city, Superior Baseball Club Inc. – the corporation owning the Border Cats – and the Northwoods League.
The city agreed to pay the club $50,815 for all incremental costs – which included transportation, meals, lodging, stadium rentals, trainers and supplies – incurred from having to relocate to play those scheduled home games in the United States.
“When you switch to on the road we’re paying for at minimum six meals per day – three for each team – and we have to pay for two sets of hotels and the bus expense goes up because we’re just on the road now for so long,” Border Cats general manager Dan Grant told tbnewswatch last year when he confirmed a settlement had been reached, though at the time he said details were confidential.
A confirmation letter sent from the city to the club and the league also noted the Border Cats had incurred projected net revenue losses from ticket, concession, merchandise, program and sponsorship sales as a result of not being able to play those games at Port Arthur Stadium. The 10 contests amount to roughly 30 per cent of the club’s home schedule.
The deal includes a two-year waiver of the team’s stadium rental fees to the city for the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, which had been negotiated in 2016 to $11,000 annually.
As well, from 2017 to 2020, the parties agreed to forgo the city’s share of 10 percent per cent of the first $50,000 of food and beverage sales and two per cent of all further concession sales beyond the $50,000 threshold.
Judge said though he believes the deal is generous to the team, it’s the lack of information released by the city until going through the Freedom of Information process that is troubling.
There seems to be a culture of secrecy, he added.
“That strikes me it may well be an agreement that helps the ball team out to stay in Thunder Bay because maybe it’s problematic and it’s just not a real money maker and the city wanted to help the ball team out,” Judge said.
“That’s fair enough but you have to tell the public that’s the deal that’s been made. I’m a little concerned about that.”
