The Irvine City Council on Tuesday, July 28, agreed to strike a five-year deal with Innovation Baseball Partners to establish a yet-to-be-named minor league team that’ll play at the Great Park Championship Baseball Stadium.
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IBP, a company headquartered in Palo Alto, also owns and manages the new Long Beach Coast as well as the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds and Oakland Ballers. They all play in the expanding Pioneer Baseball League, an official partner of Major League Baseball.
“We believe in community-centered baseball as a force for good, a way to create a gathering place for families on summer evenings, enjoying each other and watching talented professional athletes pursue their dreams,” IBP Co-founder Jamie Rosenberg said, addressing the City Council.
“Our team here would uniquely reflect what has made this community special from multiculturalism to its commitment to youth sports to the home spirit of innovation,” Rosenberg said.
Under the proposed deal, IBP would be financially responsible for staffing, production, concessions and all costs associated with the day-to-day expenses of using the 9-year-old stadium.
IBP would also have stadium naming rights, and could sell advertising within the stadium and enter sponsorship agreements.
The city would receive 50% of the net revenue from the name rights and 15% of advertising revenue. It would also have control over parking and parking fees. Irvine would also get at least $25,000 annually to go toward community events and programs, such as youth baseball clinics and camps.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilmember Betty Martinez Franco made a push to up the city’s advertising revenue share to 20%, saying “facing the budget deficit, we need to really go ahead and negotiate the best thing we’re going to get with every contract that we have.”
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The idea received lukewarm support, with most of her colleagues saying they’d like to fine-tune the details later with a goal to get a deal in time by the 2027 season.
“I think losing the ’27 season — that’s nuts,” Mayor Larry Agran said. “That’s basically setting you back a whole year and sets back the whole financial trajectory as well.”
City officials estimated the deal would eventually get Irvine about $368,000 a year in revenue for the Great Park.
The agreement was modeled after the city’s arrangement with the Orange County Soccer Club, a professional soccer team founded in 2021 that uses the Great Park’s soccer stadium.
Community groups and local teams, including the OC Riptide, a summer collegiate team in its 12th season, would still have access to the stadium.
IBP has yet to release ticket prices, but Rosenberg told council members they’d likely mirror the team in Long Beach, which charges roughly $10 to $15 for general admission, $30 to $35 for premium seats and offers a $2 special every Tuesday.
The council agreed Tuesday to have the city manager execute the final deal.