OLD ORCHARD BEACH — For the first time in more than 20 years, a baseball team will make Old Orchard Beach’s Ballpark its home field.
The Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to enter into an agreement with the Lowell All-Americans Baseball Club of Chelmsford, Mass., that will allow the team to play 21 home games and as many as four postseason games at the Ballpark during June and July of 2011.
The All-Americans are in the 12-team New England Collegiate Baseball League, whose top players are scouted and often selected in the Major League Baseball draft.
moving from Massachusetts to Old Orchard Beach, the All-Americans will become rivals with the Sanford Mainers, a New England Collegiate Baseball League team that plays its home games at Goodall Park.
Though the agreement is short term – June 1 to July 31, 2011 – team President and General Manager Doug Ayotte said he fully expects to negotiate a deal with the town that will keep the team in Old Orchard Beach for many years.
Under terms of the agreement, the All-Americans will pay the town a $10,000 user fee and a security deposit of $2,000.
The town will operate all of the concessions, with 25 percent of the gross proceeds going to the All-Americans. The remaining proceeds will be kept by the town and used to cover the Ballpark’s operating and maintenance costs. The town also will receive 10 percent of the revenue from ticket sales.
The Mainers pay Sanford $250 per game. The fee rises if the attendance exceeds 450 people, and goes even higher if attendance exceeds 700, said Marcel Blouin, Sanford’s director of parks and recreation.
Blouin said Goodall Park has a seating capacity of 800. The Mainers typically average 550 to 600 people per game.
At the Ballpark, Ayotte envisions hosting 750 to 1,000 fans for home games.
“With the proper marketing, we could pass 1,500 people,” he said.
Ayotte announced at Tuesday’s council meeting that a contest will be held to rename the team, with the winner receiving two lifetime season tickets.
“We are looking toward a long-term relationship with the town,” Ayotte told the council. “We’ll try it for one year, but I know it is going to be a lot longer than that.”
The audience and councilors applauded after Town Manager Jack Turcotte and Ayotte signed the agreement.
“This means our town will have its own baseball team,” Turcotte said.
The Ballpark opened in 1982 as home to the Maine Guides, a Class AAA minor league team. The last time a baseball team played regularly at the Ballpark was 1988, the last season for the Class AAA Maine Phillies. The park later was used as a concert venue.
Paul Crossman, chairman of the town’s Ballpark Commission, said the Ballpark became idle in 1995 and fell into disrepair. In 2007, an arson fire damaged the stadium.
The commission was formed a couple of years ago to lead an effort to restore the park. “When we first went in there, there were 12-foot-tall trees growing on the infield,” Crossman said.
Through private fundraising and donations from the town, about $375,000 has been spent to refurbish the Ballpark. “We are really proud of what we’ve accomplished so far,” Crossman said.
About 100 baseball games were played at the Ballpark this year, involving teams of all skill and age levels.
The improvements, such as new seating, new press boxes and a scoreboard, caught the attention of the All-Americans. “The field itself is immaculate,” Ayotte said. “It’s one of the best fields in the league.”
Ayotte said he and his father, Harry, “stuck it out in Lowell as long as we could,” but attendance was poor, with an average of just 150 per home game.
He said Old Orchard Beach’s location and the venue were too good to pass up, and the town’s reputation as a summer tourist destination was a factor in the decision to move the team.
Ayotte said the team will recruit college players from Maine, but “to compete, we have to look nationwide.”
Players will move to Old Orchard Beach for the summer, and many of them will live with host families.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com
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