KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After making a $50,000 down payment toward back debts with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, the Kansas City T-Bones baseball team has been granted a 30-day extension from eviction.
The team was scheduled to be evicted from T-Bones stadium on Friday after falling hundreds of thousands of dollars behind on payments to the Unified Government and Board of Public Utilities.
But the recent payment by the club and the American Association of Independent Professional baseball was good enough to give the club more time to attempt to sell the team to a new organization.
“The Unified Government looks forward to the sale of the team to new owners and repayment of the debt. More importantly, we look forward to keeping a baseball team in our stadium because we view the team as a community asset and an important part of our successful Village West tourism district,” Wyandotte County administrator Doug Bach said in a release.
The club and AAIPB say they are committed to playing the 2020 season and beyond.
According to Unified Government spokesman Mike Taylor, the T-Bones are currently in negotiations with a potential investor or investors to buy the team.
Taylor says the extension gives the T-Bones an opportunity to seal the deal.
"Our goal from the Unified Government is we would love and want to work toward keeping a baseball team here in the stadium in Wyandotte County," Taylor said Thursday. "We think it's a great community asset and we would like to keep the team here."
The Unified Government re-negotiated a deal with the T-Bones in 2017 which allowed the team to manage the ballpark and restructure its debt.
But after months of not getting payments, the Unified Government decided to evict the T-Bones.
With the 30 day extension, the new eviction date is now 5 p.m. on Oct. 13.
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