It’s been the worst kept secret in Vancouver sports, but tonight it became official - the Vancouver Canadians have been sold to local ownership, who have confirmed a 25-year lease has been agreed to on historic Nat Bailey Stadium.

Shout it from the rooftops: the C’s are local again, and The Nat has been saved.

Here’s the official press release:

Play Ball! Parks Board grants new 25-year lease for Nat Bailey Stadium

New owners of Vancouver Canadians plan revitalization of baseball in Vancouver

Vancouver, BC: The long-term future of baseball in Vancouver moved a step closer to fruition last night when the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation approved the terms of a new 25-year lease for baseball at Nat Bailey Stadium, with local ownership.

The lease was approved for the Vancouver Professional Baseball Partnership (VPBP), the new owners of the Vancouver Canadians. The partners are Vancouver residents, Lignum Investments Chairman Jake Kerr and A&W Canada Chairman Jeff Mooney.

"It is an honour and a privilege for Jake and I to be entrusted with the care of a Vancouver treasure, Nat Bailey Stadium," said Mooney.

VPBP has a keen interest in keeping professional baseball in Vancouver, retaining and enhancing a local landmark in Nat Bailey Stadium, and expanding the promotion of baseball in the community.

"I’m a lifelong baseball fanatic and first went to Nat Bailey Stadium when I was eight years old. It’s a classic old stadium, but it needs some care," said Kerr. "With some revitalizing, coming to a ballgame at the Nat will once again be the number one affordable summer sports entertainment choice in Vancouver."

"It was a summer tradition in our family to take our children to Nat Bailey Stadium and my colleague Jake now takes his grandchildren," said Mooney. "We are committed to continuously caring for and enhancing the Nat and the enjoyment of our fans, so that the Vancouver Canadians are recognised as the finest Minor League Baseball franchise in North America."

Now, if you’ve ever seen a baseball team change owners before, you’ll recognize a lot of the platitudes there - "we want to make this the best team in the minors", "we’ve been coming here since we were kids," etc etc, but there’s a major difference between the usual PR blah blah and what you read above - that is, these guys are legit.

Jake Kerr is big local money. He’s a self-made success story, and he has a long track record of investing time, money and effort into Vancouver community projects. He’s on every board, committee and community leadership organization from Kitsilano to Maple Ridge, he made his cash here and spends his cash here, and having sat behind him several times over the second half of the 2006 season (I’m sneaky like that), I can tell you he lives and dies on every pitch, just like previous owner Fred Hermann used to.

As for Jeff Mooney, you have to love the irony that, as the White Spot corporation sucks dry the name and reputation of former fast food chain owner Nat Bailey without ever actually giving anything back for his baseball legacy in Vancouver, it’s actually White Spot’s competitor, A&W, that has stepped up to the plate and preserved what Bailey spent so much of his life building.

I’ve seen some of the plans these guys have for Nat Bailey Stadium, and I have to say, I’m pumped for what’s coming. We’re not just talking scoreboard upgrade and new shirts - we’re talking major freaking architectural work that will make a day at The Nat more fun than it has ever been before.

One other person deserves a little credit for this - you might recall about a year ago we tried to interview each of the candidates running for the Vancouver Parks Board, and only one bothered to reply - Spencer Herbert. At the time, he was a young guy making his first stab at the political game. Barely a year later, he’s the Parks Board Commissioner, and he made good on his pledge to this very blog that he woud do what he could to save The Nat from the demolition ball.

Thanks, Spencer. We appreciated your thoughts way back when, but your actions as Commissioner are the stuff of legend. We won’t be forgetting come next election, that’s for sure.