Brokers Need Not Apply For Ottawa Stadium Lease ? Sun & The City

Jon Willing - June 11th, 2013

Council tomorrow will consider a recommendation by the finance and economic committee to relaunch a lease competition for Ottawa Stadium.

In the city?s first try to find a pro ball team to sign a lease, it agreed to work with Beacon Sports Capital Partners to broker the deal with a double-A club from the Eastern League. The city obviously didn?t succeed.

Clearly working with a middleman posed some challenges for the city in an already complex negotiation involving multiple stakeholders.

That?s what makes the following add-on motion, being suggested by staff, rather interesting. The first ?therefore? clears up the point that the city would consider single-A ball clubs. There was some confusion at the committee meeting about this.

And the second ?therefore? makes it clear that brokers need not apply.

WHEREAS the report before Council acknowledges Class A affiliated baseball, but the proposed Stage II business plan evaluation process outlined in the report is not explicit, identifying that the next preferred option to Class AAA and Class AA would be ?a franchise from a lower level affiliated league? ; and
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WHEREAS the Finance and Economic Development Committee has requested that the Request for Offers explicitly note that Class A baseball would be considered; and
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WHEREAS it is the City?s position that the most effective process to ensure clarity with respect to who may submit responses to the Request for Offers on behalf of existing and new franchises considering relocation to Ottawa is to have those responses submitted directly by owners/operators of the prospective franchises;
?
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Request for Offers state that the City?s preference is for affiliated minor league baseball for the stadium, including Class AAA, Class AA, Class A, followed by independent and non-affiliated leagues in that order, and that the Request for Offers state that the City reserves the right to present none, one or more of the received offers to lease for Council?s consideration;
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Request for Offers document state that responses may only be submitted by and the City will only negotiate with the owner/operator of an existing franchise proposed for relocation to Ottawa or the owner/operator of a new franchise to be located in Ottawa. Offers may not be submitted and the City will not negotiate with a broker on behalf of a franchise owner during the Request for Offers process.

It?s also worth noting there?s a second add-on motion that would make sure there are 850 parking spots retained for baseball operations if the city develops the parking lot.

Categories: Ottawa Stadium

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Source: http://blogs.canoe.ca/cityhall/ottawa-stadium/brokers-need-not-apply-for-ottawa-stadium-lease/

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