Nashua Pride owe city, ambulance company for last season
NASHUA – The Nashua Pride missed the deadline to settle an overdue rent bill with City Hall.
The professional baseball team owes some $155,000 in rent for the use of Holman Stadium, as well as $11,341 to the Nashua Police Department for security details, said Stephen Bennett, deputy corporation counsel.
The team also owes Rockingham Ambulance $750 for providing medical services for the last month of the baseball season.
The ambulance company stations a paramedic and ambulance at the stadium during home games in case of emergency.
Bennett said officials from the city and the baseball team planned to meet Monday, but that was postponed due to the snowy weather. Talks were rescheduled for Friday to discuss the overdue payments.
“We want this to work,” Bennett said. “They have been a valuable asset to us.”
The team is supposed to pay the city $100,000 in June and December for playing in the Amherst Street stadium, according to the terms of a 2001 contract.
The team’s summer payment was only $45,000, however. The difference was due Monday along with another $100,000 payment, but it was not delivered, according to City Treasurer David Fredette.
Pride general manager Todd Marlin could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
In mid-November, Marlin said the team planned to make the payment with income from luxury suite rentals at the ballpark. The contract for the Pride’s use of Holman Stadium does not penalize the team for late payments.
Chris Stawasz, the executive director of the ambulance service, said the team settled its bill much later than this in its inaugural season.
His company has its own bills and employees to pay, Stawasz said.
“We were supposed to be paid by the end of November was the last message I heard. And we haven’t been,” he said.
The Pride face more competition for baseball fans next spring from the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays that is scheduled to open its inaugural season in Manchester.
