Norwich Sea Unicorns will stay at Dodd Stadium in 2025

Norwich ― There will be summer collegiate baseball at Dodd Stadium next summer.

The city has agreed to a one-year lease extension through 2025 with the Norwich Sea Unicorns, a summer collegiate team in the Futures Collegiate League Baseball League for the city-owned Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium. The team’s current lease was set to expire at the end of this season, with a mutually agreeable one-year extension written in the agreement.

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom took the microphone Tuesday evening prior to the start of the Futures League All-Star Game at Dodd Stadium to announce the lease extension to fans. The team, which won the league championship in 2023, currently is in first place in the eight-team league and is third in average attendance with 1,472 fans per game, just behind the Worcester Bravehearts who draw 1,480 fans per game.

The team will pay the same rent, $22,500 for the year, with payments due in two installments. The team is the master tenant, able to offer the stadium for use by outside entities for events, such as the Relay for Life cancer fundraiser and the Healthy Living Festival in October.

Stadium future

The lease extension comes as the city is weighing the future of the 30-year-old stadium, whether it should continue as a sports venue or the property be sold for development. The stadium is in the Stanley Israelite Norwich Business Park.

City Manager John Salomone said one significant clause in the lease extension that the city has the right to show the land and buildings to potential developers.

“We’re still marketing at this point,” Salomone said Wednesday, “but nothing will happen for at least a year, so it would be silly not to have them in there for another year.”

The commercial real estate firm, Cushman & Wakefield, which is marketing the city’s planned Occum Industrial Center, has been asked to market Dodd Stadium as well. The firm has estimated the property could support a 200,000-square-foot building, Nystrom said.

“Other than that, we haven’t really had any other bites at the apple,” Nystrom said.

Norwich Sea Unicorns have expressed interest in remaining at Dodd Stadium for a longer lease, Nystrom said, and some interest has been expressed in bringing an Atlantic League independent baseball team to Dodd.

Kevin Brown, president of the Norwich Community Development Corp., which oversees both the current and the planned business parks, said the agency wants to be part of the city’s decisions regarding the stadium property.

“If the ultimate decision is to sell it, we want to make sure it fits our strategy in filling out our business park,” Brown said. “The other camp says there still is a future stadium use there. We’re not pre-committed to either one.”

c.bessette@theday.com