{"id":4699,"date":"2014-12-05T16:20:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T23:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=4699"},"modified":"2014-12-05T16:20:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T23:20:48","slug":"new-mustangs-owners-say-theyre-in-for-the-long-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/12\/new-mustangs-owners-say-theyre-in-for-the-long-haul\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mustangs owners say they’re in for the long haul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stangs\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

New Mustangs owners Dave Heller, left, and Bob Herrfeldt, right, stand with Woody Hahn, president of the Billings Mustangs board, at the start of a press conference to announce the team’s sale.<\/p><\/div>\n

The new owners of the Billings Mustangs said Friday that they intend to be in Billings for what one of them said would be a \u201cvery, very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Heller and Bob Herrfeldt, partners in Main Street Baseball, based in Davenport, Iowa, were introduced at a press conference Friday afternoon at Dehler Park, the 6-year-old ballpark that is home to the Mustangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not our team,\u201d Heller said to a gathering of reporters and civic leaders. \u201cThis is your team. We\u2019re simply the stewards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heller also promised they would try to make Dehler Park \u201cthe most fun, affordable, family-friendly place to watch baseball in the whole Northwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Heller who said they hoped to be here a \u201cvery, very long time.\u201d Herrfeldt, for his part, said, \u201cwe\u2019ll be hanging around for the next 10 or 20 years\u201d until they can get their children to take over the team, allowing them to retire.<\/p>\n

The press conference was opened by Woody Hahn, president of the Mustangs\u2019 board of directors and one of the local investors who have owned the team for decades.<\/p>\n

Heller praised Hahn in his opening remarks, saying that when anyone has asked him why he was interested in the Mustangs, \u201cthe first two words out of my mouth\u2014\u2018Woody Hahn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Main Street Baseball, of which Heller is the president, owns the Quad Cities River Bandits, in Davenport, Iowa, and the High Desert Mavericks, in Adelanto, Calif.<\/p>\n

Heller said that when he and Herrfeldt bought the Davenport club seven years ago, the team was on the verge of leaving town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to not only save baseball in the Quad Cities, but turn it into something that is a civic treasure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Herrfeldt said one of the things that attracted him to Billings was the deep history of the Mustangs here\u2014going back to 1948\u2014and the decades-long ownership by local investors. Such longevity is increasingly rare in baseball, he said.<\/p>\n

To buy a team in such a town \u201ctruly is humbling for me and my family. \u2026 We\u2019ll make you guys proud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heller said they would do all they could to make game day an experience attractive to everyone from 2-month-olds to centenarians. In Davenport, he said, they put in a full-size Ferris wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we do that puts a smile on a child\u2019s face\u2014that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d he said, Even so, he added, \u201cWe are first and foremost a baseball team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the new owners have no intention of raising ticket prices, at least in the near term. As for concessions, he said prices would be reviewed annually, as they are at their other properties. Sometimes prices are adjusted, he said, both up and down.<\/p>\n

In a press release issued as the press conference got underway, the Mustangs said the sale has been approved by the Pioneer League, in which the Mustangs play, and Minor League Baseball. They are awaiting final approved from Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

The release also said the \u201cMustangs front office staff will remain the same, led by 2014 Pioneer League Executive of the Year Gary Roller, a Billings native who has worked 22 seasons for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mustangs have been affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds for 41 years, longer than any other affiliation in short-aseason and rookie-level baseball.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new owners of the Billings Mustangs said Friday that they intend to be in Billings for what one of them said would be a \u201cvery, very long time.\u201d Dave Heller and Bob Herrfeldt, partners in Main Street Baseball, based in Davenport, Iowa, were introduced at a press conference Friday afternoon at Dehler Park, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1745,1748,1747,1746,1739,1738],"class_list":["post-4699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-billings-mustangs","tag-bob-herrfeldt","tag-dave-heller","tag-dehler-park","tag-main-street-baseball","tag-woody-hahn","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}