DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The future of the Daytona Tortugas is in jeopardy after a list released this week marks the team as one of 42 that Major League Baseball is considering cutting ties with.
- MLB could eliminate Daytona Tortugas
- The team's future is in jeopardy
- Some say they are ready to fight to keep the team
The announcement took the team by surprise.
"We had heard a couple weeks ago that there was maybe a list out there and that there was potential that 42 teams would be cut, but it wasn’t until the list really came out that that this became real and at that point it became a shock to us," said Ryan Keur, president of the Daytona Tortugas.
Just over from the historic ballpark on Beach Street is Sweet Marlays’ Coffee, where owner Tammy Kozinski has only one feeling about MLB news.
"Sad," Kozinski said. "I don’t want to see anything leave downtown. I don’t want to see the Tortugas leave Daytona. Going to the games is an institution"
Kozinski believes if the team leaves, it would hurt Beach Street as a whole.
"Well, obviously it's bringing that many less people downtown to even experience downtown, even if they don’t personally come into my shop, they’re just not downtown," she said.
Next door, the owner of McK’s tavern doesn’t want to lose the business he says the games drive in.
"It still gives us a 10 percent increase on the day during game nights, especially considering during the summer time is the slowest time of the year over here," said Scot Lawson, who has owned the tavern for the last 13 years.
The team president knows it would be a big blow to downtown if they had to pack up and leave.
"From an economic impact standpoint this will be crushing. About a quarter of a million people will come through the gates at Jackie Robinson ballpark each year," Keur said.
Now all the business owners can do is wait.
"It would be great if they actually stayed, but we will have to see what happens after the 2020 season," Lawson said.
But some are ready to fight for a team that they love.
"It needs to not happen," Kozinski said. "We need to figure out how to keep them."
The final decision will be made by Dec. 15, 2020, when the current contract it up.
According to the team president, 200 people work with the Tortugas that are now in danger of being out of a job at the end of next year.