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Though the C-Cats website is "under construction," but they still put out their own press release about the split:

Action today by Directors of the Northern League of Professional Baseball opens an opportunity for the Edmonton Cracker-Cats to re-align their League affiliation.

The Cracker-Cats opened with a mid-west based alliance but it became clear the future is really to the west and a league which seeks a Western Canadian identity.

With only five professional teams remaining in Canada the time is ripe and economic conditions are good for an Alberta-based baseball resurgence.

Unlike the Vipers release, this has more of a "vision" statement with them "looking west" for the future.

Hey, give them some time. There is a lot of effort needed to make a graphic of that sort. They also have to make the request to make the change to SkilTech.

Yes on all three is my guess. 2 divisions, 1/2 seasons, playoffs & championships.

The key quotes from the stories... contradictions, real or accidental (due to time and access for interviews), are common.

Edmonton Journal

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"We haven't had any direct talks with the Golden League yet," Orlich said by telephone Friday from his Naples. Fla. home. "But with the decision today, we'll be going ahead and contacting them next week."

...

"When we first bought the franchise we thought the Northern League would be a good fit," said Orlich.

"But over the years it has become clear that they don't want us. We were too far away, too remote and too many problems." Orlich said he was constantly told Edmonton was too far to travel for teams such as the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, Gary Southshore RailCats, Kansas City T-Bones and the Chicago-area Schaumburg Flyers.

...

"When we joined the league there were 12 teams and they were talking about expanding to 14," said Orlich.

...

"I'm not depressed about this at all, and I'm not any less enthused than I was," said Orlich, whose team has drawn poorly at the gate during its first three seasons. "And I don't think it will matter to fans in Edmonton." Northern League commissioner Clark Griffith would not comment on Friday's actions.

The contacts obviously were already made. Meetings are scheduled for Monday.

There's a real sense of a due diligence issue with the AB expansion. At the time AB wasn't really where the NoL was looking (Detroit was the target). With the increased travel costs (packed on the back of the AB clubs) was the need to have big(ger) crowds to cover those and all expenses. The weak attendance, whether due to true lack of support/interest or issues with marketing, meant things never got going well.

The problems with the other league was that when it came to financial help, the other clubs were unwilling/unable to give up the travel subsidy.

The departure of the AA clubs and its impact on franchise value is something of a red herring. Indy franchises are notoriously hard to sell and then rarely at the "market value" their owners want.

I don't know why anyone would be "depressed." Disappointed? Sure. Depressed? No. As for Giffith's thoughts, we know he was interviewed elsewhere in the press.

Edmonton Sun

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"The league could have a real good prairie division if we could get everyone involved. We plan to start negotiations next week and I don't think they'll take to long to come up with some type of agreement," Coates added.

A prairie division including western Canada is part of the GBL planning. They'll just have to work to fill in the gaps. It better go quickly. Even GBL fans say they're used to schedules coming out in January.

Edmonton Sun (Commish story)

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"We were very surprised," said Griffith. "We had promised concessions to them as well. We agreed to eliminate the travel subsidy for 2008 and going forward forever. However, in 2007, we had to deal with the fact we heard repeated threats of them leaving the league and threats of them going dark."

Winnipeg Goldeyes founder Sam Katz explained that the goals for his franchise remain the same in a six-team NL.

"To me it's always been about quality teams and quality ownership groups" said Katz. "It doesn't matter if it's six, 10 or 14. From my point of view, there are six quality franchises and I believe we can move forward."

Clark was surprised? I think he doubted their resolve.

Now what did they or did they not promise about the travel subsidy? During the summer it sounded like it was over then, after the schedule came out, it was back. I wonder if the plan was that the subsidy would be waived if they accepted the screwy schedule.

Mayor Sam is looking forward and is correct that 6 strong teams provide a better base for future.

Calgary Herald

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"Our position all along was that things had to be sorted out with the Northern League before we opened up discussions with any team," said Golden League CEO and co-founder Dave Kaval on Friday. "Once that's worked out, we'd be happy to have a conversation about it, and we'd be very open to seeing if that works for our league. We think they're two great markets for professional baseball, we think they have great ownership groups and we'd welcome that conversation.

"We haven't finalized our ( 2008 ) schedule, so it's certainly a possibility, no question about it."

...

And, while the Golden League would seem to present similar travel issues, in fact it's cheaper to travel to California, and the league has a more stable front office, with four of the six teams owned by the league, and the same front office remaining in place since Day 1 in 2005; the Northern League, meanwhile, has had three commissioners over the same span.

As well, the Alberta teams fit into the Golden League's future expansion plans.

"We've been looking in the Pacific Northwest for quite a while now, potential markets in Washington and British Columbia and we've had conversations with different groups dating back three or four years," said Kaval. "Geography is just geography; we've always had the vision to grow our league to different locations and bring more baseball to more communities, more kids and more families, wherever that might be."

This piece has the GBL side of things. Quite the positive comments (and commitment) the AB clubs need going forward. They bring up the lower travel costs, the stability of the front office and its central ownership --was that in Clark's due diligence review? And there's the idea that this may already fit in the GBL plans. The compliments about the clubs in the press certainly doesn't hurt either.

Fargo In-Forum

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"I don't think this is a blow to our league," Griffith said. "The actual effect here is that the six teams of the Northern League now comprise the most successful independent league in baseball. We are No. 1 in attendance, we have the best parks, we have the best owners and we have the best business plan."

...

"We were not pushing them out of the league. We very much wanted them back," Griffith said.

"Not a blow to our league?" I agree that the NoL now is made up of stronger clubs, but selling to future investors doesn't get any easier with a second split. in 3 years.

They may not have been "pushing them out" but they certainly wanted to reign them in given the way things went over the summer. Having them put up $500K a piece is hardly much incentive --especially after putting out such a dubious first draft schedule.

"Lawless" from the Winnipeg Free Press

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Sam Katz:
"The decision was yanked away from us. We had a 4 p.m. Friday deadline and we hoped (Calgary and Edmonton) would accept our proposal. Instead we received a letter from their lawyers in Toronto claiming all kinds of foul deeds," said Northern League commissioner Clark Griffith, who had ordered the Alberta clubs to post $500,000 letters of credit to be included in the 2008 schedule.

"A few hours prior to the conference call it was posted on the Vipers website that they had left the league.

"We'll play as six. It won't last for long. We'll be the most attractive league out there. We'll be sought after."

...

"It's true the league has changed. Losing the first four teams a few years ago was unfortunate and it appears expanding into Alberta was also unfortunate," offered Griffith. "But we're down to the essential six. We're stronger than we've ever been. We have six great owners, six great parks and six teams that average 4,600 fans a game. I'm excited about it. It's a strength for us, not a weakness. I actually like it."

...

The future of the league has to be labelled uncertain. The remaining six owners claim solidarity but that union will be tested next summer as teams battle to entertain customers, compete on the field and attract players to a shrinking league and an increasing number of hours on the bus.

The decision was "yanked away?" Uh... I don't understand that at all. The decision was the AB clubs, not the rest of the league. Unless there was some hope for more discussion, they had given out a fairly strong ultimatum.

A "letter from Toronto lawyers" and "foul deeds?" Uh... why do I get the sense that "letter" might actually represent some additional legal action? Something else to add to the league's legal docket.

The NoL is strong, but I certainly don't think prospective owners will see it as the most attractive. The comments about the GBL relative to the NoL are just a few obvious ones. It's a positive spin to a situation about a league that's returned to the same number of clubs it was when it started 15 years and faces considerably more competition.

The Essential 6 are strong, but expansion has been continuously elusive since they moved into Alberta. Clark may really like it, but he has little choice.

Increasing number of hours on the bus? Uh, about the only thing that will change travel-wise is that there will be fewer hours on a plane. About the only difference in bus time were not because of the AB clubs, but the depart of the AA clubs.

Lawless / Free Press continues

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Number one, the Winnipeg Goldeyes will continue to provide the quality family entertainment we have since Day 1," said Katz, quoting the party line. "We'll work to give fans the best sports entertainment value we can. That hasn't changed. I've always said it doesn't matter the number of teams in the league, but the quality of teams. Having said that, I would like to see the Northern League grow again to eight or 10 or however many teams."

The league plans to play a near-balanced 96-game schedule which would see each club meet one another in the neighbourhood of 20 times. The format of the schedule, a split-season or otherwise, as well as divisions and playoff qualifiers, remains undecided.

...

"It's what's going on," said Simunic. "We'll have to make the best of what we have. It's a lot of travel, hopefully we can play some four-game series and they'll need some more off days for travel. Players will still come to this league. It's still a good league.

OK -- All of you Goldeyes fans planning to drop your season tickets, read what Sam said. It's "family entertainment" and a "sports entertainment value" where "it doesn't matter (about) the number of teams in the league." I don't think it be made any more clear that family entertainment is the product, not "baseball" --though it's clear that Sam loves a winner.

It's an odd day when Simi is the most rational/realistic voice in the press.

Winnipeg Sun

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It's official, the Alberta experiment was a complete and abject failure.

...

Expansion is another hot topic and while Griffith wasn't about to name potential cities, he's confident the Northern League will grow in 2009 and beyond.

"You can't announce something until it's well down the line. We're in the preliminary stages of dealing with these people," said Griffith.

...

"Nobody can handle inter-league play now, it's very complicated," said Griffith, noting he isn't concerned about losing quality players to rival leagues. "The players are going to understand the teams are strong and the competition is going to be very good. The players will be even better than they were a year ago."

...

When Vipers chief operating officer Peter Young was reached in Calgary yesterday, he didn't want to delve into details, which leads us to believe there could be some form of legal action forthcoming.

"We've paid our dues, our travel subsidies, et cetera, et cetera. We feel we've been discriminated against," said Young. "Maybe there are other visions that are better than the Northern League vision."

Grow in 2009? Haven't we heard the same thing from him before (as well as one or more of his predecessors)? Obviously you can't announce something until you've got most of the work done --but that sounds the same if you have nothing. Given the activities of the other leagues for expansion, it doesn't sound like anything substantial is in place one year into his tenure.

No interleague play now? No surprise there.

And there's someone else thinking that the letter from the Toronto lawyers may be more than "goodbye kiss."

Calgary Sun

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The Calgary Vipers have been tossed out of the Northern League and are now looking for a golden parachute.

...

"This was an arbitrary decision because they wanted to guarantee us not playing somewhere else," said Vipers president Peter Young.

"We certainly weren't going to bow to something that's not written in the bylaws. They chose to impose something that was an arbitrary figure."

And we end with the most dismissive statements. "Tossed out," "looking for a golden parachute," "not going to bow," "not in the bylaws," and "arbitrary figure." I wonder if these will be in any future legal proceedings.


And so we we'll wait and see how the details of the schedule (divisions/playoffs) work out for 2008.