At a press conference inside the Jammers clubhouse at midday Wednesday involving representatives from team ownership; the PGCBL; the city; and a group of local baseball ambassadors, an announcement was made that Milwaukee-based ROC Ventures has decided to cease operating the Jammers.

Anthony Barone, field manager and community relations representative with ROC Ventures, called the decision “bittersweet,” but was made necessary, he said, because the company’s sports and entertainment interests are based in greater Milwaukee. Included in that business interest is the creation of a new professional baseball team — the Milwaukee Milkmen — which will begin play in the American Association of Professional Baseball League in 2019.

“This exciting new direction for our organization, as well as our commitment to other business interests in the Milwaukee area, has led us to the conclusion that operating a summer collegiate baseball team 600 miles away is just not practical for our company, or in the interest of the greater Jamestown community,” Barone said.

Barone, who managed the Jammers from 2015-18 and won a PGCBL championship last summer, noted that ROC Ventures had two “legitimate offers” from other organizations to buy the Jamestown franchise. But after considering a proposal by Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, the company — headed by owner Mike Zimmerman and senior vice president of operations Dan Kuenzi — has decided to donate the team and its assets to a local nonprofit group.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi speaks Wednesday at a PGCBL press conference. P-J Photo by Scott Kindberg

“We will work with the city and the local group on the timing and the transition to ensure the new owners have every chance to build a successful team and product here at Diethrick Park,” Barone said.

That process is in its very early stages.

According to attorney Greg Peterson, a member of a local baseball ambassadors group, an organization called the Jamestown Community Baseball LLC has been created and it will begin the process of finding local ownership. PGCBL commissioner Robert Julian said the “watermark for either accepting the offer or suggesting that ROC sell the team” is May 2019.

“I’ve done baseball off and on in New York state for a while now and one has to think with one’s head as well as one’s heart in these circumstances,” he said. “Neither the community nor the baseball team is done a service if the proper structure cannot be put together.

“My thought is that it probably can be. You have a great facility, you have a beautiful community and you have some economic infrastructure here, but upstate has struggled. The question is, will there be sufficient capital and will the business plan demonstrate that the individuals who are (investing) in the team be able to at least break even.”

While confident that a PGCBL team will return to Diethrick Park in 2020, Teresi said the process needs to be based “in reality and sound financial footing and foundation.”

“That’s exactly the approach that will be taken with this,” he added. ” … Time will tell. The process is already under way to create the appropriate structure. Conversations are under way with folks to add to the group on both counsel and also on an investor basis.”

Furthermore, Teresi stressed that the city and its taxpayers are “not being gifted a ball team and getting into the business as owners and operators of the team.”

“The City of Jamestown is not going to be a recipient of the gift,” he said. “This will be a separate, stand alone, not-for-profit organization.

“The ball team will be our continued tenant in this facility and there will be a formal relationship between the city government, the people of Jamestown and the ball team once it’s up and running, and that will be from a landlord-tenant standpoint with a lease.

“The lease is still in play and the city will be looking as this moves down the road to fruition … to transfer that lease to the new organization,” he continued. “The lease we have with ROC Ventures right now allows it to be assigned to a new entity with the approval of the City of Jamestown.”

Teresi also noted that without a PGCBL team occupying Diethrick Park for a couple dozen games next summer adjustments to the 2019 city budget have already been made to reflect that.

“The work that we’re starting today is on a very good, firm foundation,” said Russell E. Diethrick Jr., who is part of the local group tasked with putting together the local ownership. “It’s the opening day of spring training.”

To end the press conference, Teresi added a baseball metaphor to how he views the next six months:

“We’ve got the right team on the field,” he said. “We’re in the process of signing some more free agents and looking for good draft choices out there for our team. We’ll be playing winter ball this year from a business standpoint and, hopefully, have more good news to follow this up with next spring.”