The Orange County Flyers, a minor league baseball team that last played two years ago, are scheduled to return next year as part of a new independent league.
Mission Viejo-based Godfather Media Inc., which purchased 60% of the Flyers on April 5, announced the formation of the American West Baseball League on May 9.
The Flyers, who played at California State University, Fullerton’s Goodwin Field from 2005-2010, went on hiatus in 2011 and were originally scheduled to play all but 18 dates on the road this season in the North American Baseball League’s Northern Division. Instead, Godfather Media, which bought the North American league’s team in Yuma, Ariz., in January, will use that team and the Flyers as a foundation for the new American West league.
“The plan was always to sit out 2012 and gear up for 2013,” said Alan Mintz, head of a 25-member limited liability corporation that retains 40% of the Flyers. “There is verbal agreement with CSUF on a new lease.”
Game Plan
Godfather Media Chief Executive Michael Cummings signaled the new game plan last month when he told the Yuma Sun his team wouldn’t play in the North American league this year.
“Things just seemed unstable,” Cummings said. “So the best decision was to go dark, and we’ll have a new league.”
The American West league has “franchisees signed, in discussion or identified” in Irvine; Long Beach; San Diego; Palm Springs; Henderson, Nev.; and Mesa, Ariz., Godfather Media said.
“We have formed the league, started interviewing staff and will release their names and bios as soon as we have signed agreements,” Cummings said in a statement. “With recent events, I knew the best thing was to start a new league.”
There was a chance the North American league wouldn’t let Cummings’ teams play this season.
Cummings owned the Maui franchise in the Golden League, the North American league’s forerunner and one-time home to the Flyers. He used the Maui team as collateral to secure a loan from three of Mintz’s partners in 2010.
When Cummings couldn’t repay the loan, the three partners foreclosed and took control of the team. Cummings amassed $100,000 in debts, the Maui News reported last year.
Maui subsequently moved to the North American League.
“Had Doubts”
“We had doubts about Cummings from the beginning,” said Michael Shapiro, president and general manager of the North American league’s San Rafael Pacifics. “Ultimately, we integrated him into the league, because he promised to operate two teams in a responsible way. Over a short period of time, it became evident that Cummings did not share our vision for the league and did not have the capacity to operate one team, let alone two.”
The North American league has had its own share of financial woes, with four of last season’s teams disbanding and the remaining team owners needing to take over operation of the league after league management was unable to pay its bills.
Agency
Godfather Media purchased the Flyers as part of its plan to expand its sports holdings. It announced the creation of an agency to represent athletes and coaches on April 19.
Buying the Flyers “adds to our portfolio,” said Cummings, who sold 12 million restricted common shares of Godfather Media stock to Mintz’s group for majority ownership.
Godfather Media was trading over the counter at 7.5 cents a share on April 5 and last week was listed at about 25 cents a share. The company on its website said it targets investments in sports, mobile and social media, and entertainment in the range of $1 million to $15 million but lists no holdings other than the Flyers.
Mintz said the sale of the Flyers’ majority stake doesn’t affect his group’s exclusive negotiating agreement with the city of Fullerton to build a stadium in Amerige Park. The Fullerton City Council approved the two-year agreement by a 7-0 vote in January 2011.
“That was one asset the LLC kept with the hopes and plans of still developing a new stadium,” said Mintz, whose group lost $2 million after purchasing the Flyers for $1 million from the Golden League in 2007.
