WASHINGTON — The Potomac Nationals are — again — considering building a new baseball stadium in Prince William County.
InsideNova reports that team owner Art Silber and Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman Corey Stewart are working together to find a new site within the county.
This time, though, Silber said this plan would be privately financed.
The two sides had announced in July that a proposed stadium in Woodbridge was dead. That largely failed because of little county interest in using public bonds to finance the stadium.
Silber now says he is looking to find more corporate interest in a ballpark to help make the financing of the field more workable.
He also stated that using Industrial Development Authority bonds would have offered much lower interest rates than what he could get privately.
When the deal failed, the team owner told WTOP in July that it was very unlikely for a new stadium to be built in Prince William County.
Loudoun County, Fredericksburg and Alexandria all publicly stated they would be interested in hosting the team — each with a varying degree of public financing interest.
However, that appears to have changed, with Prince William and Silber trying again to keep the team in the county.
Supervisor Peter Candland said that there is already interest from independent league teams about playing at Pfitzner Stadium, according to InsideNova. Candland hoped that smaller teams would take interest in the stadium.
Minor League Baseball has been pushing the Potomac Nationals to find a new home because it is below league standards.
There are three independent league baseball leagues that play on the east coast: Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball and the fairly new Empire Professional Baseball League.
The Atlantic League is where Waldorf’s Southern Maryland Blue Crabs play. That league expects AAA standard stadiums for its teams.
The Can-Am League doesn’t have stated standards, but has historically featured several former Atlantic League teams and is seen as a lower-cost alternative to the Atlantic League.
The Empire Professional Baseball League calls its level of play between Rookie and High-A.
The Potomac Nationals are a Single-A baseball team.
Stewart said that Pfitzner is inadequate, no matter what a new team may want. He said if the county wants to keep professional baseball, it needs a new stadium.
