Tonight and tomorrow, it's the end of an era: AAA baseball's final bow in New Orleans. The team’s final home game is Thursday night. Then they finish the season on the road, and having been eliminated from the playoffs, will begin their move to Wichita, Kansas.
That's the foregone conclusion, anyway, but officially, it's another story. While Baby Cakes owner Lou Schweccheimer hasn't been shy about talking about the move in Wichita, the team has been very coy when it comes to discussing it here.
"It all starts with Mayor Longwell and the very first meeting, when we were asked to come to Wichita, and take a walk around," Schweccheimer told WWL's Wichita sister station, KFH Sports Radio. "It took me all of about seven minutes of walking the riverfront and I immediately got it.
"From that moment in time, we were perfectly honest with everybody that, as the mayor said to us, 'you know, there's a lot of folks in Wichita that are here by chance, but they stay by choice, and that is how I personally and we as a ball club feel about the city of Wichita."
Bob Lutz, host of The Drive on KFH Sports Radio says the new $75 million stadium is under construction, and set for an April 2020 opening.
"They're not building it for a chess tournament," said Lutz. "I think they've made a huge investment not only in the stadium but in some of the infrastructure around the stadium that some developers are looking at doing. This is the centerpiece of an Arkansas River development."
But so far, no word has been sent, officially, from the Baby Cakes to SMG, the company that manages the Shrine on Airline, that they will be breaking their lease to play in Kansas next season.
"They are under contract and have not given the LSED any official notice that they are leaving," said Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District spokesman Mike Hoss. "The LSED anticipates that they will, and it is currently doing its due diligence anyway looking for potential tenants that would keep the venue successful for Jefferson Parish in the future.”
The Baby Cakes declined to comment for this story.