Reports were confirmed Jan. 12 on 97.3 ESPN Radio that former Atlantic City Surf general manager Mario Perrucci was interested in bringing baseball back to South Jersey.
"The city has been very receptive," said Perrucci told the station.
Perrucci met with the city on Thursday, Jan. 19 to discuss the current condition Sandcastle Stadium. There seems to be a misconception that a return a full-time baseball franchise is coming soon, but that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
"I have already been talking to the Atlantic League," Perrucci said. "If we can get the field in playing order, we can bring in maybe Camden [Riversharks] versus Bridgeport [Bluefish] and do some fireworks for a game."
The condition of the field is a huge issue.
The concourse areas, lights, bathrooms and other parts of the ballpark were destroyed by vagrants that occupied the stadium while it sat empty. Those problems have since been fixed.
However, the playing surface and dugouts that hosted the 1998 Atlantic League champion Surf are nowhere near ready to be used for a game.
"The field is not in playing shape," Perrucci admitted. "First step is... we need to get that field in order."
While walking through Sandcastle Stadium last week, it was obvious that the concession areas, locker rooms, offices, press box, luxury suites and other areas of the stadium were still in a state of disrepair. The field itself definitely requires some treatment, the scoreboard needs to be fixed and the pitcher's mound must be rebuilt.
Perrucci is still hopeful that these areas can be fixed soon.
"I would like to be up and running by May 1st," Perrucci said.
The key is to show people in the area that the stadium is ready to be used, allowing local teams, high schools, colleges and tournaments to play baseball at the facility eight to nine months out of the year.
"For kids to step on a professional field is something for [them] to marvel and they will remember it the rest of their lives," Perrucci said. "We need to showcase the stadium and show them (the city) that it can make money."
In order to bring baseball back, there are issues other than just fixing the field. The land at Bader Field, where Sandcastle Stadium sits, is for sale and its future is in question.
"You can't get involved with a long-term lease," Perrucci said.
If baseball were to come back to South Jersey, a long-term lease could not be signed. That is, however, unless an agreement with the City of Atlantic City can be reached to keep the stadium intact if the land is sold.
One of the biggest questions about the Surf, when the team was still in existence, was whether it would be supported by the region.
"This area I believe can support baseball," Perruci said. "It just needs to be done in the right way."
So what exactly is the "right way"?
South Jersey has shown time and time again that it will not support local minor league sports franchises. Most of these area teams have been very relevant on the playing field, but their off-field success has been a different story.
Atlantic City hosted the Boardwalk Bullies hockey franchise from 2001 to 2005. In 2003, the team won the Kelly Cup by beating the Columbia Inferno in the East Coast Hockey League finals. Even though the Bullies found success on the ice, the team's attendance was poor.
During the Bullies' championship season, attendance at the 6,979-seat Boardwalk Hall averaged slightly more than 3,000 people per game. In 2005, the team moved to Stockton, Calif. and has never been replaced locally.
South Jersey was home to the Atlantic City Seagulls of the United States Basketball League from 1996 to 2001. In the team's first season, the Seagulls finished as runner-up in the USBL. The following season, the team won its first of three straight USBL championships.
A few years later, the franchise folded with little support or fanfare.
In 2004, the Atlantic City CardSharks of the National Indoor Football League shut down after just one year of playing at Boardwalk Hall. The team finished 9-5 in its first and only season, losing in the opening round of the '04 NIFL playoffs.
And finally, there's the Surf.
While in the Atlantic League, the team won the league's first championship in 1998, while also hosting the inaugural Atlantic League all-star game. Following that successful season, the Surf were routinely one of the league's best, making the playoffs seven times in 10 seasons.
However, after a decade of poor attendance and struggling for attention blocks away from the casinos, the Surf ceased operations on March 30, 2009. In the team's final season, the Surf averaged 2,765 fans per game in a stadium that could hold more than twice that amount.
So why didn't baseball work in South Jersey?
"It started to work," Perrucci explained. "But we had too many games and it got old quick. There aren't enough demographics and corporate sponsorship fell off after two or three years. There [were] too many home games."
why should the residents of South Jersey believe it will work this time around?
"I think there would be more support now from the casinos," Perrucci predicted. "People are now willing to work together to make Atlantic City a destination town. Now that it's gone, people miss it. Fireworks shows and everything, I think people miss it. I think making it the Jersey Shore's team would be a help."
A lasting line from the movie "Field of Dreams" is, "If you build it, they will come."
Here in South Jersey, building a stadium and having success on the field have never been enough.
Perhaps this time around, if they can fix it, the people will support it.
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