The potential owners of a Pacific Coast League team in El Paso pitched the circuit's executive committee last Friday on the merits of their group and the city.
The El Paso ownership group is MountainStar Sports Group (Woody Hunt, Paul Foster, Josh Hunt and Alejandra de la Vega Foster). Consultants presenting on behalf of the group were former Sacramento River Cats president/GM/COO Alan Ledford (Perfect Game Ventures) and Dan Barrett, principal of Barrett Sports Group, LLC.
“We spent a very productive three hours with the Pacific Coast League today,” said Josh Hunt. “We believe we made a positive, compelling case for El Paso as a viable Triple-A Baseball market, and we hope for a favorable response.”
An immediate answer is not expected from Minor League Baseball or the league. It's believed the team in question is the Tucson Padres.
In these situations, there are usually three prime areas of discussion: the backing of the owners, the suitability of the market and the ballpark situation. The ballpark situation would seem to be the only issue close to being at play here: it's been approved by the city and is slated for a 2014 opening, so the task is laying out its inevitability to the PCL.
“We believe we thoroughly addressed all of the League’s questions, and presented the many good attributes of our city," Josh Hunt said. "As we have done throughout this effort, we respect the process of the League and Minor League Baseball and will wait for that process to take its course.”
Rendering courtesy city of El Paso.
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