Maui Awarded GBL Expansion Team

The Golden Baseball League announced on Wednesday that Maui has been awarded an expansion team for the 2010 season. The team will be owned by XnE Inc. The company also negotiated a Territory Operating Rights agreement for $800,000 USD which will allow it to add another three GBL teams in the state of Hawaii. According to the company's web site, "XnE’s core business is to own and operate independent Minor League Baseball franchises throughout the United States, also, to operate a ticket/sponsorship sales division, promotional division and a concession division".

XnE Inc. also owns the St. George Roadrunners in the GBL. For obvious reasons, all professional leagues that I am aware of have clauses in their constitution that prevent a person or corporation from owning more than one team. However, it appears that XnE Inc. could end up owning five teams in the GBL some day. This could lead to some very interesting trades in the future.

Other tidbits from the GBL press release included:

• Additional expansion teams will be announced in the coming months. Hopefully, at least one of those teams will be located in British Columbia.


• The GBL 2010 regular-season schedule will be released in early December.


• The Maui team name and manager will be announced in the near future.

Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Memorial Stadium, new home of the Maui team.