Morgantown ballpark funding currently in limbo

West Virginia University's proposed new ballpark financing deal is currently in limbo. The West Virginia state legislature needed to pass a funding bill, but that bill got tied to an effort to raise pay for magistrates (don't ask me why), and the Senate didn't pass it.

There's a special section agenda next weekend where the bill could come up again, but right now the state legislature appears to be far from united on this.

This is significant, of course, because the New York-Penn League is planning to move a franchise to Morgantown in 2015, and that franchise will likely end up being a Pirates affiliate. The Pirates' NYPL affiliate is currently in Jamestown, NY. I suppose it's not totally inconceivable that a team could play in Morgantown without the ballpark -- I went to a short-season game in Casper, Wyoming two years ago at a ballpark worse than the Mountaineers' current home at Hawley Field. But Hawley Field is pretty bad, and the main reason the NYPL wants to come there is because of the new ballpark.

Hat tip to Bucdaddy.