The Mayor of Wichita, Kansas has confirmed reports that New Orleans' AAA baseball team is planning to move into a planned new facility to be built in downtown Wichita.
In a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Jeff Longwell says the Baby Cakes have filed a petition to relocate to Wichita, pending approval from the Pacific Coast League, Minor League Baseball and the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball.
"This deal has involved multiple moving parts and has been extremely difficult to say the least," said Longwell. "But Minor League Baseball assures me that this deal may have moved slower by government standards, but it has been executed extremely quickly by baseball standards."
Ballpark Digest reported Thursday that the Cakes' current ownership team plans to purchase and relocate a AA team in the Southern League to New Orleans, which could mean the Baby Cakes name would live on. The AAA team will not keep the Baby Cakes nickname in the move to Wichita.
When reached for comment by Sports 1280 New Orleans' David Ducorbier Wednesday, Cakes' Senior VP/GM "Cookie" Rojas said his focus was on the 2019 season at the Shrine on Airline.
(Disclosure: Sports 1280 New Orleans [WODT-AM] and News Talk 99.5 WRNO-FM have been the radio broadcast partners with the New Orleans Baby Cakes in the last few years.)