January 2008: Atlanta Braves announce that their Class AAA franchise would relocate following the 2008 season to Gwinnett County, Ga., a move influenced primarily by the Braves' dissatisfaction with The Diamond. . . . A group of local investors, which later becomes Richmond Baseball Club LC, investigates the purchase of a Class AA franchise. . . . The Atlantic League, an independent league (members unaffiliated with Major League Baseball organizations), proposes an expansion team for Richmond.
Summer of 2008: A few franchise owners in the Eastern League express interest in possibly relocating to Richmond. Connecticut is recognized as a top candidate. . . . Through Minor League Baseball and the Eastern League, Richmond Baseball Club LC is in negotiations with the owners of the Connecticut Defenders to purchase the franchise and move it to Richmond.
October 2008: Highwoods Properties introduces plans for Shockoe Center, a $318 million project that includes a $60 million ballpark. Richmond Baseball Club LC announces that it hopes to buy a franchise for Richmond by March 1, 2009.
March 2009: The city manager of Norwich, Conn., Alan Bergren, says of the proposed purchase of the Class AA Connecticut Defenders by Richmond Baseball Club LC: "All indications point to a sale that is in the offing."
May 2009: Eastern League President Joe McEacharn pledges to Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones that one of the Class AA league's 12 franchises will relocate to Richmond for 2010.
Spring of 2009: Patrick Zohn, a partner with the Gateway Group, a Cleveland sports-facility consulting firm, said: "It would be a generational mistake to build again at The Diamond site. It would be the mistake of history repeating itself."
May 2009: Richmond Baseball Club LC fail to raise sufficient funds to buy the Connecticut Defenders for $15.4 million by the agreed upon deadline. . . . Representatives of Ryan-Sanders Baseball, one of the most well-respected ownership groups in minor-league baseball, visit Richmond. Other potential ownership groups also visit Richmond.
June 2009: Shockoe Center proposal suspended by developers. . . . Opening Day Partners, of Annapolis, Md., proposed a $28 million transformation of The Diamond that would include removal of the roof and upper deck. City and county officials have yet to contact Peter Kirk, ODP's chairman. . . . Lou DiBella, Connecticut's managing partner, requests permission from Minor League Baseball to explore the Richmond market.
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