<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;By Lance Pugmire&lt;\\/b&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;&lt;i&gt;December 14, 2001&lt;\\/i&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;LOS ANGELES&amp;#8211;Confronting a collapsed deal, California League President Joe Gagliardi said he remains patient about placing a new owner and new ballpark in Bakersfield, despite last week&amp;#8217;s decision by Hank Stickney to scrap Mandalay Sports Entertainment&amp;#8217;s bid to purchase the Bakersfield Blaze.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;If Mr. Stickney says the time restraints aren&amp;#8217;t right, that&amp;#8217;s his decision,&amp;#8221; Gagliardi said before departing for baseball&amp;#8217;s winter meetings. &amp;#8220;He wanted to pull out. He did. That&amp;#8217;s for him and the Mandalay people to think about. I&amp;#8217;m not going to worry about a [darn] thing until Dec. 12.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Yet, on Wednesday, members of the Bakersfield City Council did not extend the Dec. 18 deadline for developer Ray Olmscheid to provide loan documents for his planned $30 million to $35 million city center project, which would be anchored on a 35-acre site by a new ballpark. Stickney, owner of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, has not commented on the matter, but several reports of Olmscheid&amp;#8217;s financial problems are believed to have led to Stickney&amp;#8217;s decision to back out.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;In October, Stickney said, &amp;#8220;The only thing that can ruin this deal now is the developer.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Mandalay was prepared to take over daily operations of the Blaze in January. The California League was going to purchase the team from Blaze owner Pat Patton for $3.9 million, then turn the team over to Stickney and Mandalay if Minor League Baseball overturned its rule against dual ownership in one league&amp;#8211;an item to be voted on during the winter meetings.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Although the deal had been agreed to in principle&amp;#8211;Stickney appeared at a news conference in Bakersfield to announce the strategy&amp;#8211;Gagliardi has acknowledged that nothing was signed. A league source said Patton received a $50,000 nonrefundable deposit with the agreement, but Gagliardi denied that.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;[Patton] is in the same position he&amp;#8217;s always been, owner of the franchise,&amp;#8221; Gagliardi said.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;While Bakersfield city manager Alan Tandy has said the city will pursue another developer if Olmscheid fails, Gagliardi said, &amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;ve had other people interested [in owning Bakersfield] on the back burner behind Mr. Stickney.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Visalia owners Tom Seidler and Kevin O&amp;#8217;Malley are interested in a new ballpark, and league sources have said High Desert owner Bobby Brett is interested in the Bakersfield proposal.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Yet, Gagliardi conceded if Olmscheid fails to meet the loan deadline, it would delay a new ballpark in Bakersfield until at least the 2004 season.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;This is not over,&amp;#8221; Gagliardi said. &amp;#8220;A lot of things in business happen in the 11th hour.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.baseballamerica.com/news/cal1214/>