Name the Team Contest

Great opportunity to have some input in the new team name and win some cool prizes at the same time.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/baseball/name-the-team/

Season Ticket Info

Here's your info... I would expect packages for partial season tickets will also be available at some point.

Team Name Announcement on October 15th

October 15th is when we'll find out the new name for Richmond's incoming AA team.

Anyone have any good suggestions? Speculation could be fun

The Diamond Renovations

As nice as a new stadium would be, its not in the cards for the near future. Plans for renovations at The Diamond are coming out.

Some things we'll see:

1. Approximately 3,200 New Flip Up Seats with Cup Holders in the Lower Level
2. New Video Board
3. Suite and Press Box fixes
4. New Team Store
5. Clubhouse Improvements

New owners are dropping about $1.5M into the improvements by spring. RMA will contribute around $75k.

The new club is set to play at The Diamond for at least 2 seasons.

"For the time being, this is our home," said Lou DiBella, the team's
president and managing general partner. "We're going to treat it like your home. We're going to do what's necessary to bring it up to the appropriate grade."

Corresponding RTD article: http://tinyurl.com/yat39mm

RTD: Minor League Baseball returns to Richmond

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/professional/professional_baseball/article/BASEGAT23_20090923-103201/294910/

The Richmond Metropolitan Authority and the Eastern League announced today that the Class AA franchise that has been based in Norwich, Conn., since 1995 will
relocate to Richmond for next season.

That franchise is contractually bound to be the San Francisco Giants' Class AA affiliate through 2010.

The club will play at The Diamond until further notice. Atlanta's Class AAA franchise
relocated from Richmond to Gwinnett County, Ga., following the 2008 season due
to the Braves' dissatisfaction with The Diamond and the lack of a firm plan to
replace it.

The RMA owns and operates The Diamond. Lou DiBella is expected to remain with the franchise as managing partner. Chuck Domino, who this season was
president of the Class AAA Lehigh Valley franchise and the Class AA Reading
franchise, is expected to be in charge of operations. Also expected to be
involved is former Class AA Altoona General Manager Todd Parnell.

It's Official: Baseball is BACK in Richmond

More to come later in the day

As long speculated, the Connecticut Defenders franchise is moving to Richmond next spring. The 2010 season will be played at The Diamond while other alternatives are still floating around for the long term.

For now, the team is affiliated with the San Francisco Giants organization.

Tomorrow is the day!

10:30 AM Press Conference scheduled at the Diamond... more info to come tomorrow

Norwich Community still expects team to leave

From this article here in the Norwich (CT) bulletin, it sure seems like the Connecticut Defenders AA team is set to leave and play in Richmond next season.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x560178089/Attendance-strong-as-fans-ponder-Defenders-future

Maybe we'll start seeing some news trickle in now that the minor league season is wrapping up.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Well, I created this blog in August in anticipation of the team announcement that was delayed but that would be made within a timely manner. Since then, we've heard nothing more than a few whispers about the delay and any potential cause for it. Bear with me here, this place will eventually be the place to come for information regarding a new minor league team in Richmond.

I was hoping to have a flood of info and perspectives to post by this time and have some great ideas on the table. Of course, all of these things actually depend on knowing 1) that we will definitely have MiLB in Richmond in 2010 and 2) Knowing exactly which team will make its way to The Diamond.

Anyway, I'm still lurking around the blog and didn't want my slowly growing reader base to give up on this little venture.

My advice would be to RSS the site or follow me on Twitter at richmondbasebal. I always tweet when I put up some new thoughts.

Thanks to all