REV Entertainment still committed to bringing baseball team to Leland

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — With Brunswick County pulling out the proposed Leland baseball team, questions have been looming on whether the entire deal is off.

With the town of Leland saying they are still committed to bringing a baseball team to town, REV Entertainment told WWAY where things stand with them.

President of REV Entertainment Sean Decker says they are still interested.

“Yeah, we had always said publicly that we were willing to match up to 100 million dollars publicly on this project and nothing has changed for us, we’re still excited about the market, the region, and the opportunity.”

Emails from the Town of Leland show the projected preliminary cost of building a stadium and preparing the site will reach nearly $120 million dollars.

When asked about that budget, Decker said things can likely change.

“The conceptual budget that was up there was just that, it was conceptual. So, we had a part in that, the town had a part in some of that, the developer had a part in some of that. So, there’s a number of costs that go into it, the stadium is one. Obviously on a site like what we’re looking, infrastructure and things like that to get there are another piece. So, the way we look at it is there were a lot of guesses that frankly, have been changing a lot since that was published.”

REV Entertainment recently sold two of its minor league teams in North Carolina, which also questions the viability of creating a team in Leland from scratch.

Decker says those situations were different.

“Completely different set of circumstances with the teams that were sold than what we’re looking at in Leland so… The question, you know, ‘are you less committed to minor league baseball or professional baseball or anything’… absolutely not. In this case, fundamentally the deal is so different in terms of our investment around the property. We’ll be invested to be there for a very long time.”

Decker also added that the next big step is finding out the results of the feasibility study from the Town of Leland.

Once that is released, we will truly know if Leland will play ball.

The Town of Leland said it will not comment until the study is back.