This may just be a case of ensuring that any possible eventuality is catered to in a long-term contract, but 24 Hours is reporting (and what have I come to when I’m using 24 Hours as a source?) that the recently negotiated 25-year lease between the Vancouver Parks and Recreation Board and the club includes a "includes a clause dealing with the faint hope of triple-A baseball’s return."

Now, I’m assuming this means that team is saying, "hey, at some point in the next 25 years, who knows what our priorities will be," and certainly any time I’ve talked to Vancouver brass over the past year, they’ve held to message in saying that they’re "happy to remain in short season ball", but there also remains the possibility that, should an opportunity to return to AAA ball arise, the new owners of the C’s want to be ready to jump on it.

And why wouldn’t they? AAA ball means more money, more customers, more press, and a ballclub worth many times more than the $7m Jake Kerr and Jef fMooney just paid for the C’s. In fact, former owner Fred Hermann let slip to me once in 2004 that his ultimate ambition was to get an all-weather stadium happening, perhaps downtown, so that AAA ball could be played and crowds would be huge. Of course, he also caught himself mid-fantasy and said, "but hey, we love it here too."

So the plot continues to thicken. Surely, with a 25-year lease in hand and upgrades continuing, the C’s aren’t looking to make the upwards jump any time soon… but what about ‘not so soon’…?

Watch this space.