Are the Elizabethton Twins a Lame Duck Franchise?
What happened to the Feb. 28 date set by Elizabethton City Council to get the Minnesota Twins to approve an improvement plan for Joe O’Brien Field?
It was D-Day for the Elizabethton Twins.
If public statements made earlier in the month by Elizabethton mayor Curt Alexander are true, February 28 was the last day the City of Elizabethton reportedly would approve funding for the renovation of Joe O’Brien Field. Their current proposal provides $1.5 million to the yard, primarily for locker and umpires room renovation.
Ideally, Elizabethton would like the Minnesota Twins to pay a third of the renovation cost for O’Brien Field. But when an agreement was supposedly reached in September to keep the Twins in Elizabethton for the long term, there was no money in the reported agreement by the parent organization for ballpark renovation.
As of 10 a.m. Feb. 28, Elizabethton Twins General Manager Mike Mains said there has been no agreement. He also spent the day out of the area to attend a funeral.
Though the end result might be the end of minor league baseball in Elizabethton and a less-than-state-of-the-art facility for any high school or college team that wishes to use O’Brien Field, you’ll forgive the masses if they take a “pox on both their houses” mindset due to the way both Elizabethton and the Minnesota Twins have handled this situation.
Renovation costs seem to vary with every report, and both Elizabethton politicians and Minnesota Twins officials have been notoriously tight lipped and disingenuous.
Numerous inquiries to both Elizabethton and Minnesota have been unanswered dating back to September 2016.
Several months ago Alexander failed to appear or reschedule a set interview time on my sports talk show, Tri-Cities Sports NOW on 1420 NBC Sports Radio Tri-Cities, and Elizabethton City Manager Jerome Kitchens, after telling me he felt the Minnesota Twins did not wish to spend any money on renovations to O’Brien Field during the 2017 Appalachian League Championship, then told me “I don’t do sports” and refused to answer any follow up questions.
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One wonders what Kitchens was doing at a baseball game if he doesn’t “do sports.”
The only thing I can get from the Minnesota Twins front office is minor league director Brad Steil, who I corralled at O’Brien Field last summer, telling me the Twins had no plans to leave the Appalachian League.
But that was last summer.
Boyd Sports, which operates two other Appalachian League franchises, originally was going to operate the Elizabethton Twins this season, but quietly pulled out. There’s a one year agreement in place for the Twins to play in Elizabethton for 2018, but no longer.
I’m a big believer in having pro sports in one’s community. There aren’t too many towns of 12,000 people that can say they have a pro sports franchise, thus bringing national attention to the community.
The problem is the Elizabethton Parks and Rec have historically had little concept on how to run such a franchise, with little marketing and a mom and pop business operation through the years.
Should minor league baseball leave Elizabethton following the season, Howard Johnson Field, home of the Johnson City Cardinals, is just seven miles from Betsy Towne with easy access off U.S. 321 and Tennessee State Route 91.
As it stands now the Twins cannibalize attendance figures of both the Cardinals and Bristol Pirates.
Appalachian League President Lee Landers has talked about expanding the footprint of the league. With the rumored return of the Southern League Smokies to Knoxville in future seasons, Sevierville’s Smokies Stadium, where Boyd Sports operates from, would offer any franchise a far better existing venue than what Elizabethton will realistically be able to provide.
Perhaps Elizabethton’s “do or die” date is a bluff to get communication going between two entities that don’t like to communicate.
But even if a last minute plan is worked out between team and town, who’s interests are served?
Marky Billson hosts Tri-Cities Sports NOW on 1420 NBC Sports Radio Tri-Cities 12–2 p.m. ET weekdays. Archives of the show can be found here and here.
