Camden Riversharks

Atlantic League (2001-2015)

Tombstone

Born: December 1999 – Atlantic League expansion franchise
Folded: October 21, 2015¹

First Game: May 4, 2001 (W 7-1 @ Atlantic City Surf)
Last Game: September 20, 2015 (L 1-0 @ Sugar Land Skeeters)

Atlantic League Championships: None

Stadium

Campbell’s Field (6,425)²
Opened: 2001
Demolished: 2018

Marketing

Mascot: Finley (the Shark)

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

2001-2003: Steve Shilling
2003: Estate of Steve Shilling
2004-2015: Frank Boulton, Peter Kirk, et al.

Major League Affiliation: Independent

Background

The Camden Riversharks were an professional baseball team that played 15 seasons in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball between 2001 and 2015.

The eight-member Atlantic League included three other New Jersey clubs in Atlantic City, Newark and Somerset, plus teams in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania in 2001. It was the most ambitious of the non-Major League affiliated start-ups that launched during the independent baseball boom of the 1990’s. Most of these “indy” leagues sought to scratch out an existence in obsolete ballparks in small cities left behind by Major League farm clubs as those teams chased new stadium deals. But the Atlantic League took a different approach, convincing civic officials in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to plow millions of dollars of public funds and loans into new ballparks in the name of downtown re-development.

The Riversharks debuted in May of 2001 at Campbell’s Field, a sparkling new $24 million ballpark built on a former industrial lot along the waterfront at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge that connects Camden to Philadelphia. Rutgers University owned the ballpark, while Camden-based Campbell’s Soup Company purchased the naming rights to the field in January of 2001. Campbell’s formerly made soups on the same stretch of waterfront property until shuttering its local manufacturing plant in 1991.

Campbell’s Field, though scenic and well-appointed, was also unusually highly leveraged. The single largest source of funds for the ballpark’s construction was a $9 million loan from Sovereign Bank. A deferred $6.5 million loan from the Delaware River Port Authority would come due beginning in 2020. In their early years, the Riversharks owed $1.2 million in annual debt service – a staggering figure for a minor league baseball franchise.³

Death of Steve Shilling & Financial Troubles

As the Riversharks’ third season opened in May of 2003, team founder Steve Shilling died of brain cancer. The 45-year old’s untimely death accelerated the team’s financial turmoil. Shilling had plowed several million dollars of his own money into support the team’s debt service and operating shortfalls. But Shilling’s estate, who owned the franchise following his passing, faced legal restrictions against making non-profitable investments.⁴ In early 2004, the Riversharks defaulted on their stadium debt service with Sovereign Bank. The Riversharks faced bankruptcy and foreclosure of Campbell’s Field and nearly folded during the winter of 2003-2004.

Ultimately, a consortium of the Atlantic League’s most powerful and experienced owners – Frank Boulton of Long Island, Steve Kalafer of Somerset and Peter Kirk of Lancaster – rescued the Riversharks by purchasing the team from the estate of Steve Shilling. But the ‘Sharks stadium headaches would never be fully resolved.

In Competition

The Riversharks had their best seasons early on under the direction of former Major Leaguer Wayne Krenchicki, who served as field manager from 2001 through 2006. The ‘Sharks finished with the best, or tied for the best, record in the Atlantic League’s South Division for three consecutive years from 2003 to 2005.

In 2004, Camden advanced to the Atlantic League championship series. The Long Island Ducks swept the Riversharks in three games.

Camden managed to miss the playoffs in 2005 in unusual fashion. Like many minor baseball leagues, the Atlantic League played a split season and awarded playoff spots to the division champions of each half of the season. Camden posted a record of 80-60, tied with the Atlantic City Surf for the best record in the 8-team league, but managed to do so without winning the South Division in either half.

After a last place divisional finish in 2006, Krenchicki departed after six seasons. He would join Camden’s Atlantic League rivals the Newark Bears and help that team to a league championship in 2007.

The Riversharks later years were bleak. The team had eight consecutive losing seasons from 2008 through 2015 and missed the playoffs for each of their final seven summers. In 2008, Camden returned to the Atlantic League championship series despite a sub-.500 regular season record (67-73). They lost to the Somerset Patriots 3 games to 1.

Extinction

In 2013, Santander Bank (the renamed former Sovereign Bank) sued the Camden Riversharks, claiming the bank was owed more than $4 million in accumulated debt service on the original loan.

In 2015, the public Camden County Improvement Authority (CCIA) purchased the troubled ballpark for $3.5 million from Rutgers University, with the money passing through to pay off the ever-circling Santander Bank. By this time, the Riversharks had languished near the bottom of Atlantic League attendance charts for a number of years. The CCIA declined the renew the team’s expiring lease at the end of the 2015 season, driving the team out of business that October.

Campbell’s Field was demolished in 2018 after less than 20 years of use. The former ballpark site was re-developed as the multi-sport Camden Athletic Complex for the soccer, baseball, track & lacrosse programs of Rutgers University-Camden. The new complex opened in 2022.