Some baseball fans are heartbroken after learning their local team may no longer be playing in O'Fallon.
On Monday, the city announced it was closing the doors to the Car Shield Field where the River City Rascals play.
People in the community said it was the only minor league sports team that brought a lot of money to the area, but city leaders said the tenants had a problem paying their bills.
During baseball season the Car Shield Field is where a lot of O'Fallon neighbors spend quality time. Jean Kranz said going every year to watch the River City Rascals play was a tradition for her family.
"At least five or six years probably since we moved over here. We love going, the kids usually play at the park we'll watch a little bit of the game," Kranz said.
But this week, she and her neighbors found out the baseball team would no longer be playing there.
Tom Drabelle is the communications director for the City of O’Fallon, he said the tenants kept being late on their rent payments.
"There have been some repeated late payments, we last renegotiated their lease in 2017 and there was some outstanding debt at that time that they were required to catch up on and they haven't quite caught up yet," Drabelle said.
That’s why on Monday, the City of O'Fallon announced it would be locking the Rascals out of the arena.
However, the Rascals said the reports that claim they have unpaid bills are false. They sent out a statement saying all lease and various other payments due to the city were made in advance. But city leaders disagree.
"Even though this course of action is going on right now this building is not going to stay vacant. This is something that's really going to have a future and we think whether it be baseball or something else it will be occupied next summer for sure," Drabelle said.
But neighbors in the area aren’t giving up hope because they still want to see the Rascals play.
“I’m pretty upset hopefully they'll come back and be able to play,” Kranz said.
City leaders said the Rascals have a balance of almost $50,000.00.
