Knights commit to stay for year

FORT MILL -- The Charlotte Knights will play baseball in Fort Mill for another season, but where the minor league club takes the field after that remains unclear.

The Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox has played on this side of the state line since 1989. For years, though, the club has been working to move to uptown Charlotte -- including signing a lease to build a stadium there.

York County officials agreed last week to renew a lease with the team to play at Knights Stadium for one year, but they want some answers about whether the team will stay in Fort Mill or move to Charlotte. Their contract was set to expire at the end of the year.

"We need some long-term commitment," said County Councilman Paul Lindemann, whose district includes the Knights Stadium site.

This month, the county will begin looking for a consultant to study other uses for the 32-acre stadium property.

At the same time, the county will begin a campaign to solicit ideas from the public.

"We don't want to leave any stone unturned," said County Manager Jim Baker. "If somebody's got a creative idea for a use of the property that we haven't thought about, we'd like to be able to give them an opportunity to volunteer it."

County officials expect to meet with Knights management in January to talk about the team's plans.

York County would be happy to have a multi-year agreement with the Knights, Baker said, but its leaders want to know if the team even would consider that.

"If they're going to move on," he said, "then we need to move on, too."

Knights general manager Dan Rajkowski said in an interview with The Herald that the team's long-term goal still is to move to Charlotte, but he understands York County's concerns.

The team's moving plans, he said, have been hampered by a sluggish economy and lawsuits and appeals involving the stadium project. Along with those delays, construction costs have risen.

"It's a challenging time for us," Rajkowski said. "Whether we get there or not, we're hopeful we will, but we don't know. We don't control a lot of that process, unfortunately."

Rajkowski doesn't know if any definitive plans will be set during the January meeting -- the first time county officials and the Knights speak in detail about what the county considers to be a long-term deal.

Another issue county leaders might want to bring up in January: how the club markets the Knights to local residents.

County Councilman Rick Lee said the team doesn't target fans south of the state line.

"I can't recall the last time that the baseball team has marketed to anybody where we live," said Lee, who represents a large swath of urban Rock Hill. "I know it's a paltry number in comparison to Mecklenburg County, but we do have about 210,000 people here, and a lot of them like baseball.

"I wish that they would take the time to try to entice the York County crowd."

Rajkowski said he has heard these concerns before, but disagrees with them, citing the team's partnership with WRHI radio, Chamber of Commerce participation and its involvement with the Adopt-A-School program in Fort Mill.

"We market to the region," he said, "and I've noted that as long as I've been here."

This story was originally published November 23, 2008 at 11:25 PM with the headline "Knights commit to stay for year."