Peninsula Oilers suspend their 2025 Alaska Baseball League season

Nov. 7 – The Peninsula Oilers said Thursday that the team will not compete in the Alaska Baseball League for the 2025 season “due to financial concerns.”

The Oilers were 23-19 in 2024, including 16-5 at home.

Team president Michael Tice said the franchise will take a year off to focus on fundraising and developing future fundraising streams.

“A little bit of both,” he said. “We definitely need to come up with some better fundraising strategies because gaming just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

The team had traditionally raised a large portion of its corporate funds from bingo. The building that housed the gaming also included visiting team housing in half of the facility, which the league dubbed the Bingo Hilton.

That building will be part of the Oilers’ strategy as they try to stabilize financially.

“Our main focus will be on new revenue streams,” Tice said. “We can’t rely on bingo to bring in the money. We still have that big building. We’re going to rent it out for events, and we have a place where we house the coaches, but we’re going to set that up for housing.”

The departure leaves the league with four teams: the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, the Anchorage Bucs, the Mat-Su Miners and the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks.

Mat-Su General Manager Pete Christopher said he had just finalized the 2025 schedule when he had a conference call with the league’s general managers on Tuesday and received the Oilers’ request to suspend the season.

“Now I have to scrap it and do it again for four teams,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s not good for the league, but they have money problems. We hope they’ll be back in 2026.”

Christopher said the league’s bylaws allow for a one-year realignment period, a standard referenced in the Oilers’ announcement posted Thursday.

It read in part: ‘The Oilers appreciate the ABL for supporting clubs in need by allowing a one-year realignment period – a foresight that has benefited several teams in the past. The focus for 2025 will be on stabilizing finances. of Directors appreciates the continued support from fans, sponsors and the Kenai Peninsula community.”

Derek Foote, who completed his first season as Glacier Pilots GM this summer, said the season will continue with the four teams. Foote served as the Oilers general manager for over a year before resigning in early May.

“We’re going to have a good season,” he said of the ABL. “We have to adjust the schedule a little bit and make some changes. It’s always sad for a team like the Oilers, with their history, not to be in the league. But things continue like anything.” different, and we’ll make some things happen and get the schedule right. We’re going to play the same number of games.”

Both Foote and Christopher said their franchises were in good financial shape.

“I’m going into my 23rd year now, so we’re pretty settled,” he said.

The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks were charter members of the ABL but left the league in 2015.

Both Foote and Christopher expressed interest in bringing the Goldpanners back to the ABL. Foote said his team will travel to Fairbanks next summer to participate in the annual Midnight Sun Game.

“We just have to come together as a league and make things better,” Foote said. “If we can get the Oilers back online and maybe get Fairbanks into the league, we’re looking really good for the 2026 season.”

The Oilers had just completed their 50th anniversary season and have a long history of future Major League Baseball players dedicating time to their roster.

“It’s a franchise with a lot of stories,” Christopher said. “They’ve had a lot of top class players. It’s a shame, but we hope they come back.”