The future of the Yorkton Cardinal baseball team is up in the air.
The Cardinals’ season in the Western Major Baseball League has just completed, with the team in last place in their division, and out of the playoffs, and now questions swirl about whether the team will be in the city by the time the 2019 season begins.
One rumour surfacing on social media was a potential move for the team to Warman.
“I don’t know if they’re moving to Warman,” said former player Derek Marshall, but he added financially “it has not been good the last couple of years. They’re hurting for money right now.”
That reality was confirmed by Darryl Rock president of the Cardinals.
Rock said the rumor of a move is at this point just that, a rumour.
“But, it’s no secret we are certainly in dire need of some financial injection to make it viable,” he said.
Rock said two seasons ago the Cardinals made a modest profit, then lost money in 2017. While the final numbers for 2018 are not in, the likelihood is more red ink.
The situation is not unique to the Cardinals. The rival Melville Millionaires are deep in the red, too.
Darren Wandy, president of the Millionaires said they have two issues to deal with, old debt, and the money to play in 2019.
As it stands, heading into the 2018 season the Millionaires were roughly $75,000 in debt, “before the first pitch was thrown,” he said.
Some of the debt is growing old.
“League fees haven’t been paid since 2015,” said Wandy, who added he believes the team has an obligation “to pay back past debt.”
As for 2018, the numbers ae not all in, but it is not likely the team made money, said Wandy.
Looking ahead to 2019, the Millionaires need to fundraise for a budget of $100-$120,000, said Wandy, adding that is at the low end of what teams in the WMBL spend in a season.
League president Kevin Kvame said it was too early to suggest any team is moving within the WMBL, considering the league is still in the midst of its playoffs.
Both Rock and Wandy said they are planning meetings after the playoffs to put together plans which will focus on finding new dollars, and garnering more community involvement in terms of both volunteers and fans.
“The culture has to change. If baseball is important then people have to support it,” said Wandy.
Marshall said the team’s board of directors has not met since the season wound up at the end of July, but they will have some difficult decisions to make when they do.
Marshall said the situation is not just Yorkton.
“I know for sure Melville and Yorkton are struggling pretty hard,” he said.
Kvame said being a smaller city has meant struggling for both teams.
“They (Yorkton and Melville), just don’t get the support from the community other teams do,” he said.
At the core of the problems in both Yorkton and Melville is getting people involved in helping run the operations of the team.
“The lack of volunteers is one of the biggest downfalls of the Cardinals,” offered Rock. “There’s only a very small group of loyal volunteers, of committed volunteers.”
It’s the same thing in Melville.
“We need 20-25 volunteers. We had seven” said Wandy.
The biggest problem is a lack of fans, at least in Marshall’s eyes. He said while there is a small dedicated core, there are simply not enough people buying tickets to pay the bills.
Admittedly it hasn’t helped of late that the Cardinals have scuffled on the field, winning only 24 games in the past two seasons, and missing the playoffs.
“Obviously fans like to come out and see a team win,” said Marshall, but he added when he was on the team in 2016 “we were very successful, but there weren’t as big a crowds as there should have been.”
Marshall said the community has to step up if the Cardinals are to remain viable in the city.
“We looking for people interested in being involved in the team,” offered Marshall, adding that means more than as fans, but people willing to help promote the team, secure more sponsors and help stabilize the team.
In Marshall’s own case he said he knows he has to get involved.
“Now that I’m not playing it’s the right time to do it,” he said.
Kvame said all teams in the WMBL have to make sure they have a plan, one that looks at immediate needs and longer term goals, and it needs the municipal government and community involved.
As an example he said is a goal “more comfortable seating for fans to come out and enjoy games?” he asked.
Rock said the City of Yorkton, who owns the field they rent, certainly needs to be part of planning for the franchise’s future. Rock said many community-owned franchises in the WMBL don’t pay field rentals.
“Yet we pay our full shot,” he said.
The rental on the field is $170 per game, with an additional charge of $85 when the lights are turned on, as listed at www.yorkton.ca.
And in the offseason a team needs to recruit well, said Kvame.
“You need to put the right pieces together to put a competitive team on the field,” he said.
Rock said recruitment for the Cardinals looked good before the start of the current campaign.
But 14 players “recruited to come” eventually didn’t because their college coach shut them down based on innings played, or players suffered late college season injuries leaving them recuperating over the summer, he said.
As an example, Rock said, “we had three pitchers, all starting pitchers that were big time pitchers, two were shut down by coaches because of the numbers of innings they had pitched, and a third got hurt.”
Moving forward as a league Kvame said that is something they will be focusing on, making sure teams have plans in place to ensure they are viable in their communities.
The league president said a team like the Cardinals puts Yorkton at the forefront across North America via the league, which has value to a community, but added “the team also has to be a viable member of the community.”
Rock said anecdotally it is estimated the Cardinals generate at $500,000 per season in terms of the Yorkton economy, through visiting teams staying in hotels, billet fees, jersey purchases, parents visiting etc; “which is a pretty good chunk of change,” he said.
Wandy said they have pegged economic impact by the Millionaires in Melville at $250-$500,000 annually.
For the WMBL moving forward Wandy said both Melville and Yorkton are important, noting the rivalry helps both teams, and the two franchises help Weyburn, Moose Jaw and Swift Current stay viable in Saskatchewan. Lose a team and it could begin a domino effect down the line.
