Ripken Baseball wants to help Aberdeen with the financial drain of Ripken Stadium and would be willing to work out an agreement to purchase the 6,000-seat home of the Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds.
“Ripken Baseball wants to help the city of Aberdeen with its current situation, and that may eventually mean taking ownership of the stadium,” Ripken spokesman John Maroon said.
The IronBirds, which are owned by Orioles Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., has played to a sellout crowd for every game since its inaugural year, 2002, and were expected to provide a large economic boost to Aberdeen.
Those ticket sales generate about $260,000 a year, mostly from tax. But operating expenses and bondholder payments leave Aberdeen with losses of as much as $485,000 in one year.
“Ripken Baseball and the IronBirds have lived up to their expectations in regard to ticket sales and hotel bookings having sold out every game for five years, along with other events at the stadium,” said Harford County Director of Economic Development James Richardson. “What?s hurt the revenue for Aberdeen is how the development around the stadium has not come onas quickly as originally expected.”
Aberdeen Mayor Fred Simmons has had preliminary talks with Ripken Baseball about a potential sale, but a couple of outside investors are also a possibility.
However, that is not a scenario Ripken Baseball would like to see happen, Maroon said.
“Cal has already invested $7 million into the stadium, and he wouldn?t want to see an outside ownership group come in and purchase the stadium,” Maroon said. “If the city feels the need to sell the stadium, it makes sense for Ripken Baseball to take it over. The logical extension for Ripken Baseball would be for it to purchase the stadium from the city.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
