Group set to launch effort to bring professional baseball to Denton in latest push to restore UNT's program

Curtis Clinesmith will never forget one magical day for the North Texas baseball team during its short-lived run in the 1980s.

We beat Oklahoma State when they were the No.

1 team in the nation, Clinesmith recalled last week.

We were not great.

They threw their seventh- or eighth-best starter, but we beat them.

That memory is one of the reasons the local attorney and one of his colleagues headed to Fargo, North Dakota, last week.

Clinesmith believes hes on the verge helping bring an American Association of Professional Baseball team to Denton and push UNT a step closer to bringing its baseball program back.

The league is in talks with the group about an expansion franchise.

Clinesmith and Natalie Martin spent months working behind the scenes to move the project forward, launched a website and traveled to meet with league officials to further explore bringing a franchise to Denton.

Northtexasnine.com went live recently and will be part of the group's public push for support that will begin Monday.

Clinesmith and his colleagues will fund an awareness campaign they hope will sell local officials and possibly voters on the idea of bringing a minor league baseball franchise to Denton.

The groups hope is to have an American Association team playing in Denton within the next four years in a publicly financed stadium.

The group sees bringing a minor league team to Denton as a key step toward UNT reviving its team that played from 1984-88.

The school and boosters interested in baseball have made multiple attempts to help UNT move toward fielding a team only to see those efforts fail to make the dream a reality.

Clinesmith helped found the North Texas Baseball Project three years ago.

That group also staged a public campaign to push UNT to start a program.

Another group founded the Denton Outlaws of the Texas Collegiate League in the mid-2000s before the franchise quickly fizzled out.

Curtis Clinesmith Whats changed is that I have talked to donors who are 100 percent behind this, Clinesmith said.

They wouldnt be supportive if they didnt think it was a possibility to bring baseball back to North Texas.

The challenge for UNT has largely been the lack of a baseball facility.

The Denton Outlaws played on a makeshift field on the old Liberty Christian School campus after UNT bought the property and converted it to a campus for athletics.

The hope at the time was the Texas Collegiate League would help finance construction of a stadium.

Those hopes were even shorter lived than the Outlaws, who played just three seasons.

Clinesmiths group is aiming to quickly move toward building a stadium that will cost $30 million to $40 million.

UNT could share the facility with the team.

Several colleges share their fields with minor league teams, including Missouri State.

The Bears and the Springfield Cardinals, a Double-A affiliate of the St.

Louis Cardinals, both play at Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri.

Clinesmith said the group is eyeing three locations in the city, including a proposed site for an expo center and fairgrounds on the west side of Interstate 35 near Milam Road in north Denton.

Clinesmith and city officials declined to name the other two locations, but a city source said another is off Bonnie Brae Street near UNT.

The school has included a baseball stadium in previous master plans for campus development.

Building a stadium is a necessary step toward landing an American Association franchise.

The league has 12 teams that are not a part of Major League Baseball's minor leagues system located from Texas all the way to Winnipeg, Canada.

I dont think anyone is going to push as hard as were going to push, said Martin, who has a background in fundraising.

We will find a way.

Im not scared of raising money.

Several key UNT donors are backing Clinesmiths efforts.

Were absolutely behind Curtis and what hes trying to accomplish, UNT booster Dillon Lovelace said.

This certainly has the makings of a situation that can be really positive for the City of Denton and the university.

Given the financial landscape in college athletics, and specifically North Texas, starting baseball from the ground floor and building a facility is a pipedream at this point.

Having a mechanism to serve as a shortcut can get this jumpstarted.

Several other key boosters have signed on to the project, including Ernie Kuehne and Don Lovelace, Dillons father and a longtime UNT supporter.

The Lovelaces were part of a previous push to bring baseball to UNT.

If we can get the city to build a park, we can put together the seed money to start a program, Don Lovelace said.

Im optimistic as long as there is a path through this process.

Clinesmith said he has met with local officials about the project.

He is hoping the group can help lay the groundwork for a stadium to be financed by the city, the county or a combination of both.

The main concern for the last six months has been making sure the political environment in Denton will support this, which it will, Clinesmith said.

The second thing is making sure we have the donor base.

We have tremendous support.

We will have a half a million to spend if there is a need for a public campaign with the possibility of going to the voters.

Joe Holland, a Denton City council member, has met with Clinesmith and other government officials, multiple times.

Denton County Judge Andy Eads also acknowledged that he has been in contact with Clinesmiths group.

Over the years, weve had frequent inquiries from several individuals and entities regarding possible projects in Denton County, Eads said in a statement provided to the Denton Record-Chronicle .

They recently asked for an initial meeting to discuss the countys future plans.

Holland expressed excitement about the project.

Hes long thought that UNT needs a baseball team to round out its athletics program.

Holland is also realistic about the obstacles the group faces as it looks to found a minor league team.

Joe Holland Building a publicly funded stadium is going to be a big ask, Holland said.

I told Curtis this couldnt come at a worse time.

The city is way overextended.

Were more overextended next year in budget projections.

Were looking everywhere for what we can cut.

Wed be trotting out dollars for a recreational project.

Its not firetrucks and police cars.

Its balls and bats.

Joshua Schaub, the American Associations commissioner, pointed to the benefits Denton would reap, if can overcome those challenges and bring a team to the city.

Denton is an ideal location for a new market in the American Association of Professional Baseball, Schaub said in a statement.

A modern ballpark paired with surrounding retail, dining, and entertainment would serve as a powerful economic engine for the region.

It would also create a safe, family-friendly venue where parents and grandparents can connect with their children and grandchildren.

UNT officials have addressed the possibility of reviving the schools baseball program numerous times over the years.

UNT athletic director Jared Mosley said in a townhall with supporters this spring that adding a baseball program would be a complex task for the school that would likely require adding at multiple womens sports programs to adhere to Title IX laws that require gender equity in federally funded programs.

While Title IX is a concern, Mosley pointed to the expense of adding a stadium as the key obstacle preventing the school from fielding a team.

Jared Mosley Theres a lot that goes into a decision to add a program, Mosley said.

A facility is a big piece of it.

Over the last nine years, there have probably been four groups that have approached us and talked about adding a minor league or independent baseball facility where we could be a tenant.

None of those have materialized.

Adding a baseball team would also spread the UNT athletic department thinner in terms of funding its programs at a time it has more to account for with the advent of revenue sharing in college athletics.

The American Conference announced earlier this year that it will require its schools to share $10 million over three years with its athletes.

Revenue sharing in college athletics began on July 1.

UNTs athletics department recently underwent a round of layoffs.

Boosters who have backed the idea of UNT adding a baseball program have long pointed to the sport as one that could be its best path to being nationally competitive.

Denton has produced several college and professional players, including Austin Jackson.

The former Ryan standout played nine years in the major leagues.

Clinesmith believes UNT would be able to land enough DFW players to be competitive, despite the number of schools with programs in the area, including TCU, Dallas Baptist and UTA.

We have players leaving the state for Samford and Coastal Carolina, Clinesmith said.

People will stay in the Dallas area if they have a decent place to play.

Clinesmith and Martin believe theyre on course to bring a minor league franchise to Denton that will bring that goal closer to fruition.

Kuehne led a successful campaign to bolster the school's basketball programs in 2012, when a group of UNT supporters raised $3 million in 30 days.

He's confident Clinesmith will enjoy similar success.

"This is the best plan and opportunity North Texas has had to bring back its baseball program since I have been involved with the university," Kuehne said.

"Curtis has done it the right way and is connected with the right people." The group believes those connections and determination will pay off after several failed attempts to bring college and minor league baseball to Denton.

I about to turn 60 in August, Clinesmith said.

Its time to do it or not.

Im going to do everything I can to make this happen.

We have a great group of people supporting this effort.

Staff Writer Christian McPhate contributed to this report.

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