Allentown Ambassadors

Northeast League (1997-1999)
Northern League (2000-2002)
Northeast League (2003)

Background

The Allentown Ambassadors were part of the tortured history of pro baseball in the Lehigh Valley region of Eastern Pennsylvania during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The area last had pro ball in 1960 when the Allentown Red Sox of the Eastern League left town. The Ambassadors came into existence as one of two competing baseball projects in Allentown and nearby Bethlehem in the mid-90’s.

Bethlehem, located just six miles away, was the site of the more ambitious plan, launched in 1994. The proposal called for a 6,000-seat development to be known as “The Ballyard”. Northampton County leaders originally hoped to attract a Class AA Eastern League franchise. But in 1995 Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles announced he would use his Major League territorial rights to veto any affiliated farm team from locating in the Lehigh Valley. Local leaders turned their sights to the independent Atlantic League instead, an independent circuit not beholden to “organized” baseball’s territorial rules. The doomed project changed names and locations and finally broke ground in Williams Township in 1999. But the half-finished Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex was demolished in 2005 without ever hosting a professional sporting event.

Indy Ball

Allentown’s baseball effort was considerably more modest. Local attorney Peter Karoly, formerly a supporter of Bethlehem’s Ballyard project, purchased an expansion franchise in the independent Northeast League in May 1996. City officials agreed to contribute $500,000 to upgrades of down-at-the-heels Bicentennial Park, Allentown’s 57-year old 4,000-seat ballpark, formerly known as Fairview Field.

“If you went in the showers [at Bicentennial Park[ now, you’d probably throw up, and that’s probably being kind,” Allentown Mayor William Heydt declared, in an unconventional approach to salesmanship, at the Ambassadors’ debut press conference.³Casler, Kristen. “Allentown Ambassadors To Make Baseball Debut Mayor William Heydt Said The Team Will Begin Play Next Year In The City’s Bicentennial Park”. The Morning Call (Allentown, PA). May 31, 1996

The Ams showed promise in their first few seasons at Bicentennial Park. The team led the Northeast League in attendance with a franchise-best 122,738 fans (2,800 per game) in 1998. Kim Batiste, a veteran of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 1993 World Series squad, signed with the Ams in 1998, one of a handful of Major Leaguers to suit up for Allentown over the years.

Before the Ams began their fourth season, the Northeast League merged itself into the larger more established Northern League based in the upper Midwest and Canada. The merger lasted three seasons form 2000 to 2002, during which time the Ambassadors and the other former Northeast League clubs were called “Northern League East”. The partnership ended in 2002 and the Eastern teams re-claimed the Northeast League name in 2003.

Stadium Sweepstakes

As the 2000’s arrived, the Lehigh Valley Stadium sweepstakes re-intensified. The sexy project of the 1990’s – the Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex – sat unfinished and unused in Williams Township. Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell sat on a $12 million state matching grant for a new ballpark in the Lehigh Valley. Four sites competed for the funds.  The half-built  Williams Township site, having forfeited an earlier $5 million state grant, hoped for a miracle. Bethlehem tried to get back in the game also. Two sites competed for the grant in Allentown.

Karoly backed a re-development of a former incinerator site downtown. He held out some hope that his Ams could play in the new ballpark. Another group headed by Reading Phillies owner Craig Stein and Trenton Thunder owner Joseph Finley held the trump card over the other proposals – the promise of a Major League-affiliated farm club. Allentown Mayor Roy Afflerbach reportedly tried to maneuver Stein & Finley into a partnership with Karoly at the downtown incinerator site, which caused the pair to cut off negotiations with Allentown in February 2004.

Demise & Aftermath

Meanwhile, the Ams were bleeding. Attendance crated in the early 2000’s, dropping from 110,059 in 2001 to just 40,787 in 2003. On May 3, 2004 Karoly abruptly folded the Ambassador just three weeks short of the Northeast League’s opening day and threw his rhetorical support behind Stein & Finley’s effort to bring affiliated minor league baseball to Allentown. Karoly also acknowledged the Ambassadors had lost $3.5 million over seven years of play at Bicentennial Park.

The move enraged Karoly’s fellow Northeast League owners. Karoly insisted he still owned the assets of the team and the franchise certificate and was simply taking a year off from play. His fellow owners scrambled to put together a travel-only team to replace the Ambassadors on the 2004 Northeast League schedule, one which they would have to collectively fund.

Craig Stein and Joseph Finley won the right to build Allentown’s new ballpark. Two years after the Ambassadors shuttered, they broke ground on Coca-Cola Park in September 2006. The $50 million, 8,100-seat stadium opened in April 2008. Stein & Finley’s Lehigh Valley IronPigs began play that spring as the top farm club of the Philadelphia Phillies. The IronPigs have consistently been one of the best attended Minor League Baseball teams in America throughout the first decade of existence.

Former Ams owner Peter Karoly and his wife were killed in a plane crash in February 2007.

Allentown Ambassadors Shop

In Memoriam

Ambassadors owner Peter Karoly died in a plane crash at New Bedford Regional Airport in Massachusetts on February 2, 2007, along with his wife Lauren Angstadt and fellow pilot Michael Milot. Karoly was 53 years old.

Downloads

1997 Allentown Ambassadors Stadium Naming Rights Analysis

Links

Northeast League Media Guides

Northeast League Programs

Northern League Media Guides 1993-2010

Northern League Programs

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