'We're really pleased': New Border Cats owners call first year a success

Despite a rough go on the field, the new owners of the Thunder Bay Border Cats are calling the 2019 season a success.

The Cats wrapped up their Northwoods League year on the weekend, missing a playoff spot with a last-place finish in the league's Great Plains East division.

Nonetheless, the season was "encouraging" for the team's new owners, Cats vice-president Bryan Graham said.

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"We're really pleased, actually, with a lot of the feedback we received from the fans," Graham said. "Thegame presentation, the improvements we made to the ballpark, the menu items in our concession. All of it was really positive."

"We didn't win as many games as we wanted to, and we're going to work hard to change that for 2020."

Graham said many of the improvements made to Port Arthur Stadium including the addition of a large video board went over very well with fans. And, he says, more improvements will be coming as the team and its ownership prepare for the 2020 season.

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"All the things that we tried to nail down at the start of the year we managed to pull off, even with the late sale of the team and the late spring we had," he said. "It was really encouraging in a lot of aspects, and we just can't wait to get started again for 2020."

Speaking of that, Graham said planning is already underway for next year.

"We're not taking any time off," he said. "We actually started, even, looking into players already for 2020, because we did get a late start in that area last year with with the sale of the team."