PRESS RELEASE – The American West Baseball League today announced that it has sold the Yuma Panthers an Arizona-based independent minor league baseball team.
The Yuma Panthers are a professional independent minor league baseball team located in Yuma, Arizona. The Panthers are one of the teams that will play in the American West Baseball League. The 2013 season is the inaugural year for the AWBL and the Yuma Panthers who play at Desert Sun Stadium which is a ballpark in Yuma, Arizona that seats 10,500 fans.
The new owner Tim Ferguson was born and raised in south Florida. He attended Indian River Community College and Nova Southeastern University where he played baseball and graduated with a degree in Education. He later pitched in the Montreal Expos organization until an arm injury ended his career. After his playing career, Tim returned to south Florida and began teaching at an inner-city school and coaching baseball at Palm Beach Community College. He also scouted for the Cleveland Indians where he worked with current San Diego Padres minor league manager, Jim Gabella.
Tim then left teaching and coaching baseball to begin his business career. He became General Manager of a multi-million dollar corporation based in West Palm Beach, began investing in real estate and later started his own mortgage and real estate investment company. After a successful 12 year career in the mortgage and real estate industry, Tim decided to return to his baseball roots while continuing to “coach” business owners and sales professionals throughout south Florida. He became head baseball coach at a private Christian high school in Wellington, FL and then quickly got a call to return to the professional ranks. He managed the Ruidoso (NM) Osos and became the General Manager of the independent professional baseball Pecos League team.
Tim became aware of the new opportunities and the people involved with The American West Baseball League and decided to pursue becoming an owner operator with the Yuma Panthers. He is excited to blend his experiences in business and baseball to provide direct benefit to the community of Yuma through their only professional sports franchise and to help players and staff achieve their career aspirations.
Tim, along with his wife Amy Ferguson, a professional musician, will reside in Yuma with their two youngest children: their son Brady and their daughter Riley.
Along with the ownership change, Tim decided to go with a different logo for the Yuma Panthers.
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No attempt has been made to secure a contract for 2013 summer dates.
Yuma wants a performance bond to assure all bills will be paid.
The bonding company will want cash to back the bond.
In essence, money up front, no more fantasy dreams.
What was the team sold for with no assets or facility contract?
More blue sky BS going on here.
I loved Long Beach’s Logo, loved the new Flyers logo but this completely makes me question the level in which this league will operate. Some of you might say that is harsh, but good logo’s aren’t expensive and that is very amateurish, I would not buy a single thing that had that logo on it. Bring back the Scorpions logo, even the stolen Penn State type Panthers logo, never liked the panthers name to begin with. Hopefully the cannons will have something to look at….
And what happened to the Mesa team? That was the leagues last announcement, and then on their new website, which continues to have no news they only have Long Beach, Fullerton, Yuma and North County….Long Beach, San Diego don’t have ballparks, although Long Beach at least has a suitable one, I will be interested to see if they get in there, San Diego, I know won’t be able to use Tony Gwynn so where will they play in a Golden League Style broken down College or High School Park? None of the teams have websites….actually Yuma does with pics of Fenway Park, QuickTrip Park of the Grand Prairie AirHogs and a bunch of other items lacking professionalism, the other teams have nothing! Fullerton keeps advertising sponsorships to their fan page of 30 or so people, they have a GM in Dan DiPace and I have heard good things, but the league is a joke, if they don’t want to be considered as such, start doing things right!
I would suggest with 7 or 8 months left until opening day (assuming they start in May or June), to get 4 teams off the ground with websites, ballparks, marketing, ticket sales, advertising, etc. I would suggest starting in 2014 and actually getting a reputable markets rather than defunct and failed western league, golden league and north american baseball league markets….at this rate, I was a believer but do not trust it.
This one….that logo looks like someone’s kid did it for a contest. I don’t like being that rough on a new team but…no choice.