The former minor league baseball team who called Camden home jumped ship four months ago.
CAMDEN -- The waning weeks of winter typically translates to spring training for fans of America's pastime.
In Camden, the former home of the Riversharks remains adrift in a sea of half-filled parking lots after the club that called Campbell's Field home for 15 seasons jumped ship late last year.
"At this point in time, the CCIA [Camden County Improvement Authority, the stadium's owner] actively continues to negotiate with several different parties in regard to the 6,700-seat stadium on the Camden waterfront," Camden County Freeholder Louis Cappelli said regarding the minor league baseball team's stadium twice named Baseball America's Ballpark of the Year.
Campbell's Field opened in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge in May 2001 after two years of construction. The riverfront project was a joint venture backed by the state, Rutgers University, Cooper's Ferry Development Association and the Delaware River Port Authority.
Fifteen years and 3.5 million fans later -- not to mention the $3.5 million the CCIA shelled out when it acquired the stadium in 2015 -- the Riversharks announced in late October that they were leaving the city.
Mike Speanic, a spokesman for Rutgers-Camden, said the school transferred ownership of the stadium to the CCIA in April 2015. According to previous reports, the deal was to repay a "senior lender" bank that helped finance construction.
When the Riversharks revealed that the 2015 season would be its last in Camden, they cited an impasse with lease negotiations with the CCIA. Rutgers' baseball team, the Scarlet Raptors, will play their 2016 season there while the university remains a tenant, Sepanic said Monday.
The former Riversharks relocated and not long after became the Connecticut-based New Britian Bees for the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball's 2016 season. Their season is expected to get under way in April, according to a press release from the league. According to the Hartford Courant, some Riversharks players and operations employees would also be making the jump once the team moved.
So what's a county to do with a 15-year-old, $24 million sports venue?
"Moving forward, as the city continues to grow with unprecedented new investment we want to ensure a viable and stable tenant in Campbell's Field for the foreseeable future and make sure we are looking at all options," Cappelli said.
According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, "multiple" baseball teams were being courted by Camden County in the wake of the departure.
In a statement, Cappelli added the county continues to conduct its "due diligence on the issue and will have more information once negotiations and transactions are finalized."
Camden isn't the only Garden State city to struggle with an under-performing baseball diamond, however.
In Atlantic City, Surf Stadium's fate has been up in the air like a fly ball. According to The Press of Atlantic City, a lease agreement reached between the city and a Bergen County-based company in December regarding the land Surf Stadium sits on has yet to be finalized. The Newark Bears, another Atlantic League team, went belly-up in 2014 and $30 million stadium was put up for sale at auction afterward.
Meanwhile, as Cappelli hinted at, the future of Camden's waterfront continues to take shape. Last year, a $1 billion retail and residential development project was announced by state and city officials. Last week, the Philadelphia 76ers revealed renderings of their "state-of-the-art" practice facility that will be across the street from the Susquehanna Bank Center.
With the outline of Campbell's Field visible over his shoulder, Camden resident Kenneth Curry stood on the front porch of Victor's Pub on a sunny Tuesday afternoon and lamented the loss.
"You can take a family there for $50," said Curry, who attended at least two to three games each season. "It's a nice place, it close to where I live and its reasonable," he added of the stadium still wrapped in Riversharks branding.
"Change is inevitable," he said, but bringing another team into Camden could be nothing else but a benefit. "I used to walk by here and it was nothing but a loading dock," he said of the sports bar on the ground floor of The Victor luxury apartments building.
"I'm not a great baseball fan, but that's fun," Curry said, gesturing to the empty complex like Babe Ruth pointing out his famous 1932 World Series home-run.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.