Owners of the Billings Mustangs have called a press conference for Friday, and though they’re not saying what is to be announced, it appears likely that the team is being sold to Main Street Baseball.
The press conference, set for 3 p.m. in the clubhouse at Dehler Park, home of the Mustangs, will include Woody Hahn, president of the club, and Dave Heller, president of Main Street Baseball.
As I reported for the Billings Gazette, Hahn confirmed in July 2013 that the local investors who own the rookie league Mustangs were in preliminary talks with a party interested in buying the club.
Main Street Baseball, of which Heller is the president, already owns the Quad Cities River Bandits, in Davenport, Iowa, and the High Desert Mavericks, in Adelanto, Calif. The Bandits are the Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, while the Mavericks, a Class A-Advanced team, are affiliated with the Texas Rangers.
A press release about the press conference said there will be “a major announcement for the Billings Mustang franchise.” The same release said the announcement “will begin a new chapter for a franchise with a history of more than 60 seasons of Pioneer League baseball.
Hahn said he couldn’t disclose what the announcement will be.
“We want to do it in proper order,” he said. “I don’t want to be quoted by one person before I talk to the others.”
“I said, you have to wait till Christmas to find out,” he said.
The Mustangs have been affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds for more than 40 years and are owned by investors who originally bought shares for $100 each. There are 1,000 shares in all, 542 of which are owned by the Mustangs corporation, which is controlled by the board of directors.
The other 458 shares are owned by 91 individuals or groups, Hahn said last year, but four owners control a majority of those shares. Hahn also said last year that any sale would have to be approved by the directors and then by a two-thirds majority of investors holding the outstanding shares.
The city of Billings owns Dehler Park, which cost $13.7 million and was funded mostly by a bond issue approved by city residents in 2006.
Other people scheduled to be at the press conference are Bob Herrfeldt, a partner in Main Street Baseball; Jim Iverson, a Mustangs board member and manager of the booster club; Bryon Stiller, president of the booster club; and Gary Roller, the Mustangs’ general manager.
Heller is also the president of Main Street Communications, a political consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Miami shores, Fla., that works on behalf of Democratic candidates.
The company’s website describes Heller as “one of the top political media consultants and campaign strategists in the Democratic Party. As president of Main Street Communications, an award-winning political media firm, Dave has compiled the best won-loss record in the Democratic Party helping clients win election to Congress.”
