Wilmington City Council Votes To Explore Options For New Braves Minor League Stadium

The process for funding a new Braves minor league stadium in Wilmington, North Carolina, passed its first big hurdle last night. The Star News has the story:

And yes, here is confirmation that the Braves would be bringing the team under their ownership, as speculated earlier on Talking Chop:

Braves and Mandalay officials are offering a 20-year lease guarantee as part of the agreement for the city to in turn build a stadium. The Braves and Mandalay would co-own the minor league team, which Braves officials say would be relocated from Lynchburg, Va.

While the process seems to have gone smoothly so far, there were signs of discontent outside the council meeting last night:

Protestors who carried signs in front of city hall and raised them during the meeting, have similar concerns.

Beau Derosa and Martin Goter sat outside city hall before the meeting holding signs that read "I call foul on corruption" and "Next election you are out."

Talking Chop has been on this story from the beginning, first passing along reports of the Braves interest back in early December of last year, but the AJC is finally catching up.

Overall I support this strategy, but I do hope they decide on an original name for the team, and don't just call them the Wilmington Braves. The Wilmington Wahoos or the Wilmington Wombats would be so much better.