A Texas-based firm that’s partnered with MLB’s Rangers went Duck searching and acquired itself a ballclub on Lengthy Island.
REV Leisure, the official sports activities and leisure firm of the massive league workforce, introduced the acquisition of the Lengthy Island Geese on Wednesday. The transfer ends Frank Boulton’s tenure as proprietor, a place he had held because the workforce’s inception in 2000.
Boulton, who based the Atlantic League of Skilled Baseball and has served as league chairman because the first season in 1998, will stay with the Geese in an advisory position to REV Leisure.
“I’ve all the time considered my possession of the Lengthy Island Geese as a public belief, and any successor needed to be in lockstep with that perception,” Boulton stated in an announcement. “REV Leisure has that dedication and is the best group to information the Geese into the longer term and preserve QuackerJack dancing on the dugout tops for a few years to come back. I’m grateful to the followers, mates, sponsors and full Lengthy Island group for his or her help for 25 unbelievable seasons of Geese baseball and am assured it’s going to solely get higher as we enter the following 25!”
Geese president and chief enterprise officer Michael Pfaff will keep on in his position main the entrance workplace, and REV Leisure’s sports activities administration division will run the enterprise operations, “with a concentrate on preserving the membership’s distinctive id, deepening group relationships, and creating new alternatives for progress and innovation,” in keeping with a launch by the membership.
“We’re proud to welcome the Lengthy Island Geese into the REV household,” Sean Decker, President of REV Leisure, stated in an announcement. “Frank Boulton has constructed one thing really particular on Lengthy Island. Our duty is to honor that legacy, construct upon the inspiration he established, and proceed delivering an inexpensive, family-friendly expertise whereas positioning the Geese for long-term success.”
REV Leisure operates a number of impartial baseball groups throughout the nation, and along with its acquisition of the Geese, the corporate introduced it additionally bought the Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League.
Earlier than Wednesday’s announcement, there had been no indication that the Lengthy Island baseball workforce was up on the market.
The Geese have been one of many flagship groups of the Atlantic League, changing into the winningest ballclub in league historical past, taking 4 titles over their first 19 years of existence.
The Geese additionally personal the excellence of being the Atlantic League’s all-time chief in attendance, promoting out 721 video games.
Boulton has lengthy been heralded for his management in serving to create the Atlantic League and the Geese, who play in Central Islip.
The longtime baseball proprietor was a part of an try and carry a second Atlantic League to Lengthy Island in Nassau County within the failed referendum to rebuild the Nassau Coliseum in 2011. Boulton would have introduced a brand new minor baseball league workforce to play in a 6,000-seat stadium close to the world.
Boulton appeared to sign a winding down of his stewardship of the Atlantic League late final yr.
The league introduced in November that Boulton would transition from his position as Atlantic League chair and CEO to member-at-large of the manager committee, efficient Jan. 1.
York Revolution proprietor Invoice Shipley was chosen to succeed Boulton in that position.
