UPDATE: Continued coverage of Muckdogs' search for buyer

CLICK HERE for WBTA's full in-depth report today

...(Genesee County Baseball Club President) Brian Paris says he's particularly searching for someone not connected with this area and unaware of the situation, to recognize the ballclub's worth, both financial and sentimental.

He says that sponsor could easily work a re-naming deal for the stadium as a trade for their funding. At the least, he dreams of a large corporate sponsorship that would guarantee RCB sticks around for team operations.

But that's no guarantee. And sale of the team is a very real possibility.

Tom Williams is the attorney for the GCBC and will deal with the sale. He's not yet sure what kind of a price a minor league professional baseball club could go for these days.

"($6 million is) the kind of number that I've heard," he says. "I think (speculators) might be basing those numbers on what another team sold for recently" -- the Oneonta Tigers were sold for about $6 million just two years ago (according to WBTA's Wayne Fuller), and moved to Connecticut this past winter -- "but obviously...something's worth whatever somebody pays for it. We'll have to wait and see."

There is a chance that if the team does not sell, Major League Baseball would re-absorb it and remove it from the ownership of both GCBC and RCB -- and the clubs would potentially come away with no monetary compensation from a sale, which could net as much as $6 million. Williams isn't concerned about that just yet.

"I think that we would find something to do before that happened," says Williams. "We expect that we're going to get some interest in the team. If it's just flat and there's absolutely no interest, then I think we'll have to look at that, and decide what to do.

"But I really don't think that will happen. I think there will definitely be some interest."

WBTA's own Wayne Fuller, Voice of the Muckdogs for years, member of the GCBC Board of Directors -- and generally considered Batavia’s Mr. Baseball -- is somewhat saddened by the news.

"This is something that I've known for a couple of months now," says Wayne. "The board of directors, including myself, voted (in May) in favor of soliciting offers for the purchase of the franchise. We did not vote to sell the team; only to solicit offers."

Whatever may happen, today's announcement is one that many Batavians knew was coming, but didn't want to believe. Regardless, it is now a reality that the team may leave town -- and the collective air in the lungs of the Batavia community has, at least partially, been let out.

Paris says this is not the time for that. If there were ever a time to get out and support your hometown baseball team, it's now - more than ever.

"I absolutely believe that this team could stay in Batavia," declares Paris. "I believe Batavians don't give up. I believe that we will get people to come out and say 'No, we don't want (the Muckdogs) to leave, we want them to stay. We're going to show you we don't want them to leave by coming out in numbers.'

"Furthermore, should the team be sold: nobody's going to leave it in Batavia if there isn't support. So now is not the time to remove support. Now is the time to step up and support (the Muckdogs), regardless of the outcome."