Land could be “transferred” from city to new baseball team

The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to sell land worth more than $800,000 to the team owners for development.

One of the team’s owners, Lou Schwechheimer, told the Associated Press that the development around the ballpark should spur economic growth elsewhere in Wichita.

The deal calls for the transfer to cost considerably less than the value – just $24 for the footprint being given. Until now, that stipulation was left secret. Mayor Jeff Longwell said it was because of Minor League Baseball rules. Managers of existing business near the site of the new stadium said they’re not opposed to the idea but are disappointed in the lack of specifics of the entire project.

“We’re not getting information,” said John White, manager at The New Stadium, a bar which sits blocks away from the new stadium site. “It’s hard to get information about what they’re going to do.”

(Read more: KAKE – News)