May 17, 2012City, Jammers Sign 5-Year Lease Agreement
Jammers Feel Right at Home
by Jim Riggs
The Post-Journal
May 20, 2011
The Jamestown Jammers of the New York-Penn League will be calling Diethrick Park their home through 2016 after a five-year lease with the City of Jamestown was signed near home plate on Thursday afternoon by Jamestown major Sam Teresi and Jammers general manager Matt Drayer.
The Jammers have been affiliated with Florida Marlins since 2002 and this is the second five-year lease with the National League team.
Drayer noted the lease signing was just a formality.
''We already had the schedule done, our travel already booked, we were ready to go,'' he said about the 2011 NY-P League season. '' We just had to finalize the agreement and have the lawyers look at everything and make sure the i's were dotted the and the t's were crossed. It was a formality, that's all it was.''
Drayer noted Florida has been very happy with a short-season Class A team in Jamestown.
''The Marlins like the area because it's small, it's quaint,'' he said. ''They're not in a large city where it's tougher for the guys to adapt. They're not in Brooklyn where their players have to spend a couple thousand dollars a month on rent. We have a great relationship with JCC and the dorms for the guys to live in and these are things the Marlins look at. It's just been a great fit.''
And Jamestown's relationship with Rich Baseball, which owns the Jammers, has also been a great fit.
''We've had an outstanding relationship with Rich Baseball and this is not your standard landlord-tenant relationship,'' Teresi said. '' When the organization decided to move the team here from Niagara Falls in 1993, we executed a five-year lease and what we've been doing since 1998 is we've simply been extending the original 1993 lease for a period of time with some additional conditions built into it. So what we've done today is extend the 1993 lease by another five years, assuring that professional baseball will continue to be in Jamestown for at least the next five years.''
He added, ''It's easy, it's comfortable and it works and we're glad we have the best owners in baseball here in Jamestown.''
And Teresi emphasized how important it is that the Jammers are in Jamestown.
''There's less than 150 major-league affiliated baseball teams in the United States and a small market like Jamestown continues to be one of them,'' he said. ''Make no mistake about it, this franchise has a high and growing market value. There are other communities and investor groups across the nation that would love to get their hands on this franchise and move it to a larger market. But it is a testimony to Bob Rich and his organization and also this community that adequately supports the team that it is still here and will be remaining here for the next five years.''
The economic impact is significant, according to Teresi. When you add up housing for the Jammers' players and coaching staff, hotel stays for visiting teams, scouts and tourists visiting, and transportation, he said, ''It's well over a seven-figure economic impact to the greater Jamestown area.''
And the association with the NY-P League is also a plus.
''Having the New York-Penn League in Jamestown, one of the premier minor leagues in the country, it doesn't get any better than that,'' Teresi said.
NY-P League action will begin on June 17 and that's when the Jammers open the season at Mahoning Valley. They open their home season on June 20 against Williamsport at 7:05 p.m.