Arkansas Travelers baseball team selling ownership to Diamond Baseball Holdings

The Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club announced Thursday (May 9) it has entered into an agreement to sell to Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), an organization that owns and operates select Minor League Baseball clubs affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB).

Terms of the financial transaction were not disclosed, but the sale has been approved by the Arkansas Travelers’ board of directors subject to receipt of all necessary approvals, including from its shareholders and MLB, a press release announcing the deal stated.

The club, which plays its games in North Little Rock’s Dickey-Stephens baseball park, will remain the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and will continue to be led by CEO Rusty Meeks and locally operated by all current front office staff.

“We are incredibly grateful for the ardent support of Travelers fans and the Central Arkansas community for allowing us to play a role in the history of this franchise. We are so proud of what we’ve been able to create here together,” said Meeks, President of Arkansas Travelers Baseball Inc., which is selling the team to DBH.

“DBH has a reputation for celebrating the local identity of their clubs while supercharging the impact on the local community, and we’re eager to see the Travelers benefit from their leadership and expertise,” Meeks said.

Rex Nelson, who has been a board member of the Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club, said on his blog that a central issue leading to the sale involves a lack of $7 million in capital improvements from the city of North Little Rock to the Dickey-Stephens baseball stadium that is required to keep the minor league baseball team in central Arkansas. Nelson said the Travelers Club spent $5.4 million on stadium maintenance and repairs in recent years.

“Our board depleted all reserves of the Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club, making improvements (totaling more than $5.4 million) that were required just to get us to this point. Those stadium improvements will now be a gift to the city of North Little Rock since Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club (which will soon cease to exist as a business) has no equity in the stadium… Yes, the lease says the team shall be solely responsible for, and shall make and perform, all maintenance and repairs. But capital improvements aren’t maintenance and repairs,” Nelson said.

A study conducted by an outside engineering firm found that field improvements to fix sinkholes in the field would cost $7 million to repair. The Travelers Club contends the city of North Little Rock, as owners of the stadium, are responsible for those costs.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to be entrusted with a legacy as longstanding as the Travelers’, and we’re grateful to Russ, the Mariners and the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock for their support of this partnership,” said Pat Battle and Peter Freund, Executive Chairman and CEO of DBH, respectively. “We look forward to enhancing the experience at Dickey-Stephens Park that fans already know and love, with Rusty and the entire front office staff at the helm and deepening our connection with the greater Central Arkansas community.”

The Arkansas Travelers, founded in 1901, are the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and call Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock home. Diamond Baseball Holdings was founded in 2021.