Peninsula Oilers suspend their 2025 Alaska Baseball League season

The Peninsula Oilers said Thursday that the team will not be competing in the Alaska Baseball League in the 2025 season “due to financial hardship.”

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

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

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

The team had traditionally raised a bulk of its operating funds from bingo. The building that housed the gaming also included visiting team housing in half of the facility, which was referred to in the league as the Bingo Hilton.

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

“Our main focus is going to be on just new revenue streams,” Tice said. “We can’t rely on bingo bringing the money in. We still have that large building. We’re going to be renting it out for events, and we’ve got 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’d just finished the 2025 schedule when he got on a conference call Tuesday with league general managers and received the Oilers’ request to suspend the season.

“Now I’ve got to scrap it and redo it for four teams,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s not good for the league, but they’ve got money problems. ... We’re hoping they’ll be back in 2026.”

Christopher said league bylaws allow for a one-year regrouping period, a standard that was 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 regrouping period — a foresight that has benefited several teams in the past. The focus for 2025 will be to stabilize finances. The Peninsula Oilers Board of Directors appreciates the ongoing support from fans, sponsors, and the Kenai Peninsula community.”

Derek Foote, who completed his first season as Glacier Pilots GM over the summer, said the season will go on with the four teams. Foote was the Oilers GM for more than a year before stepping down in early May.

“We’re going to have a good season,” he said of the ABL. “We’re just going to have to address the schedule a little bit and make some changes. It’s always a sad thing for a team like the Oilers, with their history, to not be in the league. But, things go on like everything else, and we’ll make some things happen and get the schedule right. We’re going to play the same amount of games.”

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

“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 indicated an interest in bringing the Goldpanners back into the ABL. Foote said his team will be traveling to Fairbanks next summer to compete in the annual Midnight Sun Game.

“We’ve just got to come together as a league and make things better,” Foote said. “If we can just get the Oilers back online and maybe get Fairbanks in the league, we’ll be 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 spending time on their roster.

“It’s a very storied franchise,” Christopher said. “They’ve had a lot of big leaguers. It’s a shame, but we hope they come back.”