A push to bring minor-league baseball back to Mid-Missouri is advancing, as the potential team owners now believe they have enough community support to start financing the project.
"We really think it will work," said Steve Dullard, Jefferson City Renegades president, at a fundraising and informational event for the team held Thursday at J. Pfenny's.
The Renegades ownership team had hoped to gauge community interest in a potential Frontier League baseball team in Jefferson City through an online crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The idea was to encourage community members who believed they would attend games to donate at least $1 to the campaign, with the total number of individual funders to reflect just how many people in Mid-Missouri were interested.
Roughly two months into the campaign, 55 funders have supported the effort online - compared to the 1,000 team organizers originally had hoped for - but the Renegades say they have determined through other methods that plenty of community support exists.
"Where we've gotten a lot of support is via Facebook and a lot of organizations in Jefferson City," Dullard said.
The Renegades ownership team has the blessing of the East Side and West Side business associations, as well as several local businesses they believe would benefit from increased traffic and visitors to Jefferson City, Dullard continued. The Jefferson City Renegades Facebook page currently has more than 1,800 followers.
Most importantly, they are confident they have the support of Jefferson City's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department, which owns the potential home of the Renegades, Vivion Field.
"It is a public field that would be renovated. Parks and Recreation needed to know that there was enough public support behind it," Dullard said.
For the Renegades to renovate Vivion Field, they would need to negotiate a long-term lease - an atypical arrangement, but not an impossible one, said Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Bill Lockwood in a previous interview. They also would have to ensure other entities - namely the Jefferson City Jays baseball team, which uses Vivion as its home field - had sufficient access to the field, which the Renegades ownership team also considers a priority.
Dullard presented the Renegades' plan to the Parks and Recreation Commission April 14. The commission did not take any formal action, but indicated support for the project.
Making the stadium suitable for a semi-pro team also would require additions like locker rooms, umpire rooms, and a press box, as well as renovating dugouts and expanding seating from its current capacity of 800 to seat more than 2,500.
"We need between $500,000 and $1 million to achieve the renovations," Dullard said.
The Indiegogo campaign has raised more than $4,400 to go toward architectural designs, and will continue accepting donations for another three weeks. But securing significant funding will require serious investors.
"The biggest thing now is to collect the necessary funds," Dullard said. "We've started actively looking for financial investors who are interested in investing in Jefferson City."
Frontier League teams are not affiliated with major-league organizations. The league has existed since 1993 and currently has 14 teams, located mainly in the Midwest. The Frontier League season is 96 games, with 48 at home. Average game attendance is 2,500 and average ticket price is $8.25, according to the Renegades' presentation to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
The earliest a Jefferson City Renegades team would take the field is 2017, Dullard said.