NY Mets South Atlantic Affiliate will be Columbia Baseball team

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Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — On Thursday, city leaders and officials announced the team affiliation of the future Minor League Team coming to Columbia. CEO of Hardball Capital, Jason Freier announced the South Atlantic Affiliate of the New York Mets, the team from Savannah will be the team playing in Columbia. “I’m excited to be here, excited to welcome the New York Mets to Spirit Communications Park and excited to welcome them to famously hot Columbia, South Carolina,” said Mayor Steve Benjamin. After months of speculation, officials unveiled the Savannah team will make the move to Spirit Communications Park to better accommodate the needs of the team. “They have a very, very old ballpark that was not acceptable to the Mets, it was not acceptable to Major League Baseball and it didn’t really allow us to provide the kind of fan experience that we wanted to,” explained Freier. However, now with a brand new ballpark on the way in Columbia, New York Mets General Manager, Sandy Alderson, said the Capital City is an ideal fit for the team. “I just think being involved in a new project is something that motivates everybody from the players right up to someone like myself or those involved in player development,” said Alderson. While right now the future ball park is a construction zone, with tractors and concrete walls starting to go up, officials said they are on schedule and on budget. Officials said they have not selected a name yet but expect to make that announcement in the next few months. The ballpark should be complete by April 2016.