Officials from the Eastern League said it is unacceptable that there has been no action on finishing the Dunkin' Donuts baseball stadium and they are requiring the Yard Goats baseball team to explore an alternate plan if the park is not completed.
"We cannot risk 2017 being played on the road, and we're not going to," Joe McEacharn, the president of the Eastern League, said during a news conference. "The only thing that can happen here, if this stadium is not done, is baseball will not come to Hartford."
However, he does he not want it to come to that and hopes that the team will be able to call Dunkin' Donuts Park home.
"Baseball remains committed to Hartford. The Eastern League, the Hartford Yard Goats, the Solomon family, all are determined to make baseball a success here in Hartford and we firmly believe that it will be a tremendous success by every measurement," McEacharn said. "But we are at a critical, critical point for that to happen."
The Yard Goats had to play the entire 2016 season on the road when deadlines were missed to finish the park.
The league doesn't have authority over Arch Insurance, the surety company, so they said they have ordered the team to take action and do what's necessary to assure the stadium is finished in time for the team to play at home when the new season begins in April.
The team is working with the city on a "parallel path," should Arch Insurance not fulful its obligation.
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Hartford Stadium Authority Chairman I. Charles Mathews and Yard Goats owner Josh Solomon also spoke during the news conference.
Solomon said the team is committed to staying in Hartford and that's why the team made a proposal to the city of Hartford to provide a loan to finish the stadium.
Mathews said that the proposal from the Yard Goats was not what they were expecting and they are putting together a counter-proposal.
League officials also discussed a Plan B, but would not discuss what that plan might entail.
Mathews said that will be to sit down with the Yard Goats and come up with a deal to get the stadium done.
Mathews also said Arch, the insurance company, has been in Hartford for eight weeks and the city has received a take over agreement from the insurance company, which city officials have returned to the insurance company to review.
