Can Pro Baseball Be A Hit in Worcester?
Worcester businessman Henry Camosse Jr., who held a 1-percent stake in the Tornadoes, said he has met with about a dozen other local business owners about forming an ownership group to buy the Worcester entry in the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball.
The Worcester Tornadoes rapidly unraveled in August, as mounting lawsuits over its finances prompted the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball to strip the team of its membership.
With no league to play in, the team is obsolete. But at least two local business owners say they're interested in forming a new team to replace the Tornadoes in the Can-Am League. They say professional baseball is still a winning venture in Worcester, despite the Tornadoes' financial troubles.
But even ardent supporters admit it won't be easy.
“I know from my experience (with) the team that baseball in Worcester can make money,” said Oxford resident Bob Weldon, one of the business owners working to establish a new team. “Their downfall has always been cash flow.”
If there's anyone who can speak with authority on the subject, it's Weldon. The owner of Oxford-based Black Ink Sports, he was hired as a contractor to set up the financials for the first owners of the Worcester Tornadoes when the team debuted in 2005.
Weldon was hired to do the same for the Worcester Sharks hockey team in 2006. Then, he co-founded a minor-league football team, known as the Philadelphia Phoenix, for which he still works as a consultant.
With an eye on the Tornadoes' struggles, Weldon has been thinking about forming an ownership group for a new team, called the Worcester Phoenix, for months. He envisions a tiered ownership structure, comprised of hundreds of memberships with different benefit levels based on the percentage of ownership.
Weldon had no cash commitments as of last week, but plenty of verbal commitments. The memberships total $1 million, and Weldon thinks he can sell about half of those within one year.
“We're all hoping for the same thing: to maintain professional baseball in Worcester,” Weldon said.
So is Henry Camosse, owner of Camosse Masonry Supply Inc. in Worcester and a resident of Charlton. Camosse also has a history with the Tornadoes. He made a bid for ownership of an independent team when the Can-Am League was first considering a Worcester team, but he lost to a Boston-based ownership group in 2005. When Todd Breighner bought the team in 2009, he sold 1 percent of the equity to Camosse.
Camosse said he didn't realize he would be the only local person with an ownership stake in the team, and he had minimal involvement with it under Breighner's ownership. Now he's ready to make his second bid for a Can-Am team here. He has met with about a dozen other local business owners about forming an ownership group.
“I'm just looking for a straightforward bunch of guys that want to keep this thing going,” Camosse said.
Camosse believes in baseball's success locally because he said the value can't be beat, especially when compared to the cost of traveling to Boston to see the Red Sox.
“I think that, structured and marketed right, it can provide very good value for (the city)” Camosse said.
MLB Affiliations
Of course, there is no shortage of affordable opportunities to watch baseball within driving distance of Worcester. Nearby Red Sox minor-league affiliates include the Lowell Spinners and Pawtucket Red Sox. That's important, because teams supported with talent by a Major League Baseball team tend to be more successful than those that are independent.
John Morrison, owner of the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs, a Leominster-based collegiate team, said that's why making independent baseball successful is a challenge in the region.
Morrison pointed out that two other Can-Am teams recently folded, the Pittsfield Colonials and the Brockton Rox, which is now a member of the Futures League. It's not surprising, then, that Morrison thinks a collegiate team would be best for Worcester. And if that's the direction prospective owners were to take, Morrison said, he might be interested in investing.
But there doesn't appear to be much appetite for a collegiate team, at least so far. However, Weldon and Camosse must act fast. The Can-Am League needs a viable plan by Oct. 1 to add a new Worcester team to its membership. This includes a $200,000 commitment, according to Camosse.
Vote Of Confidence From Can-Am
Miles Wolff, commissioner of the Can-Am League, gave Worcester a vote of confidence, despite the tight deadline.
“There are enough people in Worcester who would like to have a team there, that we think we can find new ownership,” Wolff said.
He said that when the Pittsfield Colonials folded last year, the league wasn't interested in pursuing a new team in that market because it was too small. But Worcester is big enough to support a second team.
If a new professional baseball team forms, one company likely to support it is the Hanover Insurance Group of Worcester. Hanover was the Tornadoes' largest sponsor, and spokesman Michael F. Buckley said the company is well aware of the efforts to establish a team in its place.
“We were very supportive of bringing professional baseball to Worcester in 2005, and we continue to think it can play an important role in the Greater Worcester entertainment mix,” Buckley said. “If it's a strong, well-capitalized group, there's no reason we wouldn't continue to support high-quality, professional baseball in Worcester.”
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