Bert Parsley's vision was bold and unusual: a 35,000 square-foot restaurant and event space adjoining a Harley Davidson dealership. It would only work in the right location, though, and the one he found on El Jobean Road in Port Charlotte, Florida, seemed perfect.
"We're right in front of Charlotte County Sports Complex," the Twisted Fork restaurant owner recalled thinking. "How could this go wrong?"
Before the eatery even opened, the minor league baseball team that called the stadium home was gone.
When Major League Baseball stripped 40 teams of their affiliation in a drastic shakeup of the minor leagues this past winter, most were compensated with an alternative high-level club, such as a college summer league team.
Port Charlotte was among a handful of exceptions.
The Charlotte Stone Crabs - formerly a Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays - shut down entirely, and there's no plan to replace them. Their departure has left businesses, nonprofit organizations, youth baseball leagues and others in the community seeking ways to replace the revenue and revelry the ball club provided.
"It became a part of the fabric of our organization," said Lynn Dorler, head of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Charlotte County. "We miss that."
Parsley had hoped fans filing in and out of the ballpark would provide big business for his unusual space, but since Twisted Fork finally opened last September, he has had to adjust expectations for the reality that minor league ball might be gone forever from this town on Florida's Gulf Coast.
"I can only imagine what the games would have done for us," he said.
The Stone Crabs' community ties were big and small. Some losses are regrettable but hardly crushing - the Port Charlotte Little League, for example, used to be provided with the baseballs left over each season in the Stone Crabs' batting cages.
"They were generous," league president Lou Agosto said. "We miss them in a lot of ways. I wish they didn't make this move, but it's something we have to live with."
Dorler's Boys & Girls Clubs leaned heavily on the Stone Crabs. The Florida State League team hosted games as early as 10 a.m. to accommodate kids attending the Boys & Girls Clubs' summer camps, and players were frequent visitors to the organization's headquarters. Two Stone Crabs general managers even served on the nonprofit's board of directors.
"Our kids knew Blake Snell before Blake Snell was even in the major leagues," Dorler said of the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Rays. "Willy Adames, when he was in the minor leagues, he was so good with our kids, playing catch with our kids on the field. He just went above and beyond to be friendly to kids in our community."
The sides coordinated to host a major fundraising gala for the Boys & Girls Clubs each spring, known as the BaseBALL. The Rays were also involved in the event, and Dorler is optimistic it will continue with help from Tampa Bay. And with the the MLB team still holding spring training in Port Charlotte, kids in the area aren't entirely without baseball.
Dorler knows there will be a void for the summer months, though - and the lost chance for kids to see up close what it looks like as someone pursues their ambitions.
"It's priceless," Dorler said. "It's an opportunity to see a dream or set a goal, to say, 'I want to be like that, I want to be successful.' To interact with baseball players, it helps them dream. It helps them see something for their future."
While spring training will keep pro baseball at Charlotte County Sports Complex, other cities that lost minor league franchises are exploring ways to repurpose their stadiums.
Officials in Lancaster, California, are trying to figure out what to do with The Hangar, the 7,000-seat former home of the Lancaster JetHawks. Lancaster city manager Jason Caudle told The Los Angeles Times the city is researching options, which could include converting the park into an amphitheater.
AP photo by Mark Humphrey / Matt Malone, turf manager and director of stadium operations at The Ballpark at Jackson, grooms the infield before a home game for the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association on Tuesday in Jackson, Tenn. With the Jackson Generals no longer around, the Goldeyes are playing their home games in Jackson due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)Jackson, Tennessee, has taken a similar approach after losing the Double-A Generals. The team's license for The Ballpark at Jackson terminated May 31, and city officials have begun soliciting proposals on ways to utilize the 6,000-seat stadium.
Mayor Scott Conger told The Associated Press he sees significant financial opportunity for Jackson in finding a new use for the city-owned facility.
For starters, Conger said, baseball's biggest impact on his community never came from the Generals - they competed in the Southern League with the Chattanooga Lookouts, who were spared and now are part of Double-A South - but instead from the youth select team tournaments held on the 17-field sports complex nearby. Those are still bringing families to the area in droves.
The city had been paying around $1.3 million annually in stadium operations as part of Jackson's agreement with the Generals, and Conger said "the return on investment annually was not anywhere near where it needed to be."
"We have a prime and fantastic asset for the city of Jackson right in a prime location on Interstate 40, and people want to be a part of it and utilize the stadium," he said. "I think for us, it's really the first time that we've been in charge of our own destiny with that stadium. And so we have an opportunity to maximize the stadium usage to its full potential."
That doesn't mean there isn't disappointment. Josh Smith, a 45-year-old marketing manager in Jackson, said the community dearly misses the Generals.
The Ballpark at Jackson was his family's favorite gathering space, and he cherished the idea of sharing that with his niece and two nephews. Area residents are used to driving to nearby Nashville or Chattanooga for concerts, the zoo and other forms of entertainment, but Smith said they had gotten used to having baseball in their backyard.
"It was what baseball was always supposed to be," he said. "It's your whole community having a blast."
Sad as those who spoke to the AP were about losing their minor league club, all were also understanding. Charlotte, Jackson and Lancaster all ranked in the bottom third of all minor league teams in attendance in 2019.
"I want to believe that minor league baseball will come back to Charlotte County," said Dorler, the Boys & Girls Clubs executive. "I don't know business-wise whether that makes sense for MLB."
Parsley, the restaurant owner, echoed that sentiment. When the Rays hosted 14 spring training games this year, it didn't matter that COVID-19 restrictions were still limiting capacity - the crowd still spilled out and filled the Twisted Fork, leaving Parsley to wonder what might have been.
"I still wear my Stone Crabs hat and shirt," he said. "It'd be cool to see another team roll back in here sometime. There is support with the community."