Not So Fast Says B-Mets Owner (again)

The owner of the Binghamton Mets came out once again to defend his team, refuting reports from earlier in the day made by ballparkdigest.com that the team was close to moving to Ottawa, Ontario for the 2014 season.

After interviewing Binghamton Mets owner Michael Urda, Press & Sun-Bulletin B-Mets reporter Lynn Worthy had this to say in an electronic article posted at 7:12 PM last night:

Urda said the B-Mets ownership has not had discussions with Beacon Sports Capital or any potential ownership groups about buying the franchise.

When Worthy pressed the B-Mets owner further as to the future of Double-A baseball in Binghamton, Urda had this to say

Urda would not definitively say the Binghamton franchise would remain a Double-A affiliate, quipping, “Anything is possible. We could put a Major League team here as well.”

One further quote that appeared in the article, this time from Eastern League president Joe McEacharn and a salient point in the entire ‘Ottawa is getting an Eastern League club’ controversy is:

“The reason there’s not baseball in Ottawa right now is because it failed miserably,” McEacharn said.

Although proponents of the Ottawa market returning to affiliated baseball have turned a blind eye to this fact, the fact remains that attendance numbers in Ottawa – even before they became a lame duck team prior to their move to Allentown – were below what Binghamton is drawing at this point, and at that time Ottawa had a Triple A club, one step above the Double A Eastern League.