Suns, Pittsfield Discuss New Lease For Wahconah Park
 The Pittsfield Suns have agreed to enter negotiations to stay at Wahconah Park. |
Mayor Daniel Bianchi says he hopes to reach a multiyear agreement with the company in the "next couple of months." The current lease has expired.
Bianchi said he and club owner Jeff Goldklang, of the Goldklang Group, have signed a 90-day extension to negotiate the next lease.
"Within the next couple of months we hope to have a long-term — three to five years — agreement," said Bianchi on Thursday. "I think we finally have a terrific baseball partner."
Pittsfield Suns General Manager Kevin McGuire also confirmed that the organization has started the process of negotiating a new lease. McGuire said at the start of the year that he hoped to sign another lease.
"We do plan on sitting down with the city to sign a long-term agreement," McGuire said at the start of the summer.
The Suns seem to be the team that has stopped the revolving door at the park, should a new agreement be reached. Since the New York Penn League left the city in 2001, five teams called Wahconah Park home over the 10 years prior to the Suns.
The Berkshire Black Bears of the independent league lasted two years immediately following the single A Pittsfield Astros. In 2005, Dan Duquette brought his New England Collegiate Baseball League team from the Duquette Sports Academy in Hinsdale to the park. The Dukes lasted until 2008. The American Defenders, also in the NECBL, gave it a go from 2008 until 2009 until running out of cash. The Pittsfield Colonials in the Can-Am League lasted from 2010 until 2011.
The Goldklang Group eyed Pittsfield to be the next extension of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The summer league was formed in 2010 for college ballplayers and has since expanded to 10 teams.
The Suns finished the 2014 season with the highest attendance in the league, with some 46,913 people going to the ballpark over the course of 26 games, according to their website. The Suns brought an average of 1,804 people to the park per game.
The Suns won their first playoff game on the road.
Tags: baseball, college baseball, Pittsfield Suns, Wahconah Park,
