Moving ‘em around

From the pages of Ballpark Digest:

-- There has been a proposal floated to move Lake County and the new Bowling Green team (moving from Columbus GA) from the South Atlantic League to the Midwest League. The proposal may flounder because neither league is happy with the changes that would be required to the schedule, especially the SAL (which would adopt the Southern League model of five-game series and either five-game or 10-game road trips).

-- The Omaha Royals have suspended discussions with the city of Omaha about playing at a new downtown ballpark. The College World Series will be moving out of Rosenblatt Stadium and into the new park as part of Omaha’s extension of their agreement with the NCAA, and the Royals are concerned about getting their fair share of the pie as well. The team has talked with suburban Sarpy County officials and received permission to explore moves to the Houston suburbs and to Vancouver (which I think is the longest of long shots).

-- Columbia SC has surfaced as another potential player in the proposed Cal League/Carolina League franchise swap. The SAL had continued to have interest in the market even after the Capital City Bombers moved to Greenville prior to the 2005 season, and Columbia does have a much better ballpark than does Fayetteville. The holdup here (as in Fayetteville) is that the Coastal Plain League team holds the lease on the ballpark and would be very unhappy if MiLB moved in.