Fort Wayne Mad Ants officials announced Tuesday that Timothy Bawmann will be the new president of the basketball team.
Bawmann is replacing Jeff Potter, who will remain on the team as an advisor until his contract ends in September.
Bawmann, who is originally from Illinois, says he looks forward to making Fort Wayne a destination for sports fans and families. He’s in favor of building an arena downtown.
“If that happens, it would be wonderful,” he said. “I see what Parkview Field is like, and you guys should be very proud of what you have. As a guy that spent close to 30 years in baseball, that is a model building. If we could get lucky enough to have an arena downtown and it’s anything at all like that, it could be a gamechanger.”
The proposed arena would be across from Parkview Field, next to the Grand Wayne Center and could cost more than $65 million to build. Some residents oppose building a new structure when the city has other event venues like the Coliseum.
Bawmann’s background is in baseball, but he said he wanted a new challenge. He most recently worked for the Lowell Spinners, a minor league baseball team in Massachusetts affiliated with the Boston Red Sox.
Before working for the Spinners, he worked in marketing and administration for many minor league baseball teams, including affiliates of the Montreal Expos and Houston Astros.
