Community Involvement
In 2002, Studer and his wife purchased a small baseball team, the Pensacola Pelicans. When the Southeastern League folded prior the 2004 season, leaving the Pelicans without a league, Studer purchased the franchise rights of the Springfield Ozard Mountain Ducks, allowing the Pelicans to take its place in the Central Baseball League. The Pelicans joined the American Association after the 2005 season.
In late 2004, Studer became involved in a group that would become the Community Maritime Park Associates, which proposed a development to occupy the City-owned Trillium property. The Community Maritime Park project, which was approved by the Pensacola City Council in 2005 and again by voter referendum in 2006, is a public-private partnership which will include a new baseball stadium for the Pelicans and a conference center and office space for Studer's company. Studer himself became a lightning rod for much of the controversy surrounding the Park.
Studer and his wife have donated to various social organizations in the Pensacola area, including $2,200,000 to the Lacey A. Collier Snoezelen Complex at Westgate. Studer donated $2.25 million to the maritime museum of the Community Maritime Park (doubled by the state's matching grant program) and pledged that he would donate all profits from the Pensacola Pelicans — including any profits should he ever sell the team — to local charities.
Read more about this topic: Quint Studer
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