The Rochester Red Wings could open the season next month in a newly renamed ESL Ballpark.
A long-term naming rights agreement was announced Tuesday by the team, ESL Federal Credit Union, and Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, and later endorsed by the Monroe County Legislature.
The initial agreement is for 10 years, with options to renew every four or five years through 2056.
"The fact that ESL is willing to stick with us over this long term is really very meaningful to us, and that they have the confidence in us, in our community, just means so much to us," said Red Wings President and CEO Naomi Silver.
ESL President and CEO Faheem Masood said it matches ESL's mission to invest in places and programs that create positive change.
"We look for opportunities to bring people together, build pride and add vibrancy in every corner of our region. There are countless examples of how the Red Wings and this place does exactly that,” he said.
The tentative deal exceeds the ballpark's prior naming rights agreements in both length and cost. According to a memorandum of understanding, ESL would pay Monroe County $550,000 per year in the first year of the contract, with a 2% increase each year. That would total more than $905,000 by year 30.
"That's important, because this facility, is owned by the taxpayers, and for it to be sustainable, we need partners," county Legislator John Baynes, D-East Rochester, said at Tuesday's announcement in the Red Wings Club House. "We can't continue to go to the tax levy to support every amenity that exists, whether it's the zoo or here."
Baynes and other members of the Monroe County Legislature later authorized the agreement on a vote of 27-1, with Legislator Rachel Barnhart, D-Rochester, opposed.
"I'm not voting against ESL. I'm not voting against the Red Wings. I am voting against a horrific process that is not transparent," Barnhart said, explaining her vote during the meeting and questioning why an agreement reached Saturday was only submitted to lawmakers, in general terms, after the press conference announcing it. "I am voting against a deal that I haven't seen. I don't know what's in this thing. None of us have seen it. We are voting to trust them."
The ballpark, which opened in 1996 as Frontier Field, was most recently named Innovative Field. Frontier Communications paid $275,000 annually for naming rights and Innovative Solutions paid $298,000 per year.
While officials said at the news conference said that the tentative agreement with ESL does not stipulate that the Red Wings must remain a Triple-A franchise, the administration later told lawmakers that it does — or that failure to maintain a Triple-A license could be declared an event of default.
There has been speculation that the Wings' current affiliation with the Washington Nationals could be at risk with the Richmond (Virginia) Flying Squirrels, a Double-A organization, opening a new stadium a couple of hours outside of Washington.
A Facebook post by the Richmond Times-Dispatch indicated that the Flying Squirrels current affiliation with the San Francisco Giants runs through 2030, so 2031 "is the first season the Nationals and Richmond could potentially link."
When asked about that possibility, Naomi Silver said, "There is always a certain risk, and we do think about that. Their (Richmond's) stadium is new and we don't love that idea, but there's going to be Major League expansion as well."
Silver said her concerns were mitigated by the fact that Rochester is a Triple-A city with a Triple-A stadium.
Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed budget includes $225 million for economic development and revitalization in Rochester and Monroe County. Bello would not say whether some of that funding, if it survives the budget process in Albany, would be used to enhance the baseball stadium. The final decisions, he said, will be made jointly with Mayor Malik Evans, and Gov. Hochul and the state's regional economic development team.
"The stadium is probably one of the older stadiums, I think, in Triple-A baseball," Bello said, "but it's also got really good bones here."
He added that new seats and concourse improvements would be beneficial.
But it was the spirit of the place that was top of mind for the county executive on Tuesday. Bello called the park "Rochester's front porch."
"It's where kids come to their first game, where coworkers meet after work, where neighbors share summer nights fireworks in moments that stick with them for years," he said.
"When this place thrives, it sends a signal about the health and the vitality of our community."
Includes reporting by investigations and enterprise editor Brian Sharp.
