Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Statement from Lou DiBella

“On behalf of the Defenders organization we want to thank our friends and fans in the region for their loyal support over the years, especially this past season,” said Team President and Managing Partner Lou DiBella. “It was a fantastic year on and off the field.  I’m going to do everything in my power to facilitate and encourage the return of baseball to Dodd Stadium. I look forward to seeing all my friends in Norwich and the Southeastern Connecticut region at an affiliated game at Dodd Stadium in the near future.”

Go to www.NorwichBulletin.com to read the letter of intent to vacate Dodd Stadium and teh audio file of the press conferemce.

4 comments:

greg8370 said...

Here's hoping that short season A ball comes to Dodd!

greg8370 said...

Just back from reading the reader comments section the initial report in the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper re: the relocation.
To say the response to getting baseball back is underwhelming is an understatement.

greg8370 said...

Good article by you in today's paper.

Hard to belive that four other teams wanted to go to Richmond (especially Harrisburg who just remodeled its park).

But the article serves as just another reminder of how single minded the EL was in getting out of Norwich and dumping Lou in the process.

They are stuck with Lou in at least the short run, but the league stacked the deck against Lou in the front office by picking their own guys to run the show. Wonder if yesterday was the first time Lou met some of those guys.
I'm betting (a) that Richmond will become a Nationals farm team (b) Lou sells his ownership within the next 18 months (c) and that down town Richmond ballpark never happens.

Any thoughts?

BigLeagues said...

Greg8370:

I wasn't aware that the league picked the front office management - somehow I find that hard to believe.

That said, Chuck Domino and Todd Parnell are very well known throughout the Eastern League, and I know for a fact that Lou has met Chuck Domino and Parnell face to face several times.

That said, you hit the nail on the head. DiBella is in this for the short haul. He failed miserably in Norwich and I would give it 2-3 yeas max and Lou will get that 15.4 Million or perhaps a tad more. Especially after Domino has a couple of end-to-end sellout seasons. He is one of the best operators in baseball. He is particularly effective at building community enmeshment.

The truth is DiBella paid far too much for the Norwich franchise, and was under water with that operation from the day he was announced as the new owner. The 25 Limited partners were brought on board to make sure the loans were getting paid and there was operating capital.