Here's something to keep an eye on: The Rochester club is currently operating under a month-to-month lease to use the stadium there, and the International League president is threatening relocation if the issue isn't resolved with a longer term deal reached. A negotiating tactic to be sure, but instability like that is typically a turn-off for Major League teams looking to affiliate, and the current PDC with Minnesota is up after the season.
“That type of situation has to be treated very carefully,” Mobley said. If it goes unresolved, he said, the league could “step in.”
What does that mean, “step in?”
“If you play it out to the one end of the spectrum, it means the league can revoke the franchise and take possession of it and relocate it and do whatever needs to be done to ensure it can play somewhere,” Mobley said.
“That’s the nuclear option,” he added. “But it can go to that extreme.”
His words shouldn’t be considered a threat. Relocating the Red Wings is not something Mobley wants to do. He knows what the Red Wings mean to Rochester and he said he has confidence the team and county can works things out.
But Mobley has an entire league to consider. He acknowledged exploring new homes for the Red Wings last year. Mobley declined to identify the cities, but said, “There are certainly options available to us.”
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/columnists/andreatta/2018/01/29/rochester-red-wings-frontier-field-lease-cheryl-dinolfo-naomi-silver-monroe-county/1076403001/The Red Wings are community owned. I'm not sure how the "take possession" would work. Forced sale? The Chiefs were community owned, but obviously that wasn't a forced sale. I remember reading that Syracuse had another team with serious interest in buying them, but they opted for the Mets because the Mets were viewed as more likely to keep the team local (at least in the short term).
Think ownership would be aggressive in a move like this? Nats seem like a logical fit as the other team that tried to buy Syracuse. If so, could they try to get involved here?
Guesses as a new location? Richmond and Jacksonville look like two logical spots.
The current Richmond ownership seems pretty content where they are, but you'd have to think the opportunity to upgrade to AAA would be appealing. They'd have to find a new owner and location for the Squirrels, though. The owner in Wilmington, DE wants to upgrade from his current High A franchise to AA. Rochester sold/moved to Richmond; Richmond sold/moved to Wilmington? Any decent open locations in Carolina League country to take the Wilmington High A team? I know the other Wilmington (NC) flirted with a team a few years ago, but couldn't get stadium approval.
The Jacksonville ownership has wanted AAA for a while, and they've got a really nice, AAA-quality stadium there. There's been some movement in the Southern League in recent years (the Huntsville team moved to Biloxi, and it looks like the Mobile team will soon move to Huntsville), so there's an "open" spot (either Huntsville or Mobile) that could take the current Jacksonville AA team.
