BILLINGS — The owner of the Billings Mustangs has countered a city proposal for a new Dehler Park contract to keep the team in town.
Related: Playing hardball: Could the city of Billings lose the Mustangs?
Contract negotiations reached a critical point this week, with the team warning that no deal by July 31 could mean no baseball season next year at the city-owned ballpark.
Watch the full video below:
Mustangs managing partner Dave Heller claims the league has already given the city of Billings a 30-day extension, and the Pioneer League could move forward without the Billings Mustangs on the 2027 baseball schedule.
Heller said he is willing to negotiate but warned the city has a bad history of losing sports teams. He spelled out his concerns in a statement to MTN:
"The Arena Football League team in Billings was starved for revenue to the point they choked out and died. The minor league basketball team in Billings was starved for revenue to the point where they, too, choked out and died. And then the minor league hockey team was starved for revenue until they also choked out and died.
"Every other minor league team that's played in Billings has failed to make it. I will not let the City kill the Billings Mustangs the way Billings' other teams were killed — by taking away their revenue streams while charging exorbitant rents. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. I will not sign a deal that will kill the Mustangs or send us into bankruptcy," Heller said.
Billings City Council members say they intend to keep the Mustangs at Dehler Park and believe they can reach a new contract. A city committee is meeting Friday at noon to review Heller's counter proposal.
City committee members say the current contract doesn't give the city enough say in how the park is used, and doesn't give the city enough, in some cases any, of the income generated from concessions, gate money or sponsorship money.
The Mustangs are coming to the end of a 10-year contract in which the city charged $60,000 per year for use of Dehler Park. Now, the city is asking for $172,000 per year — nearly triple the current rate.
Read the current contract below:
