The New Britain Rock Cats are owned by Double Play LLC, which consists of Josh Solomon, his brother Jim, and their sister Jennifer Goorno. When that group bought the team, they insisted they were utterly separate from DSF Sports and Entertainment, which is owned by their father, Art Solomon.
Josh Solomon stressed that his group is distinctly different from DSF Sports. Eastern League and minor league rules prohibit an owner from operating two teams in one league.
Papa Solomon's company owns two minor league teams, including the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, an AA franchise in the same Eastern League in which the Rock Cats play.
So it was a little surprising to read the following in today's Hartford Courant analysis of city emails connected to the Rock Cats stadium deal:
The meeting at Salute on Trumbull Street included Mayor Pedro Segarra, Development Director Thomas Deller and former Chief of Staff Jared Kupiec for the city. The Rock Cats contingent included owner Josh Solomon; his father, Art Solomon, owner of fellow Eastern League member New Hampshire Fisher Cats; and John Willi, another Rock Cats executive.
What's Art doing there? But the Courant found subsequent encounters:
The mayor next met with a Solomon family member in June 2013, but it was Art Solomon who set up this meeting after a phone conversation with Kupiec, according to the emails. It is unclear whether Josh Solomon and other Rock Cats executives were in on the meeting. Before the gathering, though, Art Solomon was told that he would have some time [to] "chat with the mayor in private either before or after."
So here it appears that Art Solomon, supposedly separated from the Rock Cats by an ownership firewall, functioned as its point man.
I asked MiLB, the overarching minor league body, about the rule. Its spokesman Steve Densa confirmed the no-double-ownership-interest rule but said in an email:
This does not mean that owners cannot consult with other owners, assist each other with providing advice, or otherwise share the benefits of their own experience. That type of sharing of information happens a lot. For example, it is not surprising that Josh Solomon would seek advice from his father for the discussions with Hartford because of his father’s longer experience operating an Eastern League club.
This, somehow, seems like more than "advice."
