At its regular meeting March 8, Coplay Borough Council unanimously approved a lease between Balliet Stadium and Coplay Legion Baseball.

“The lease is for 10 years,” Councilman Stephen Burker said.

The borough and its sports teams are in negotiations with Coca-Cola. The soft drink giant offered money for a new scoreboard and other updates to Balliet Stadium. The move is expected to bring top-level sports entertainment back to the stadium. The condition on the agreement is that only Coca-Cola products can be sold at Balliet Stadium.

Coca-Cola indicated that joint venture deals with local sports teams are in the future.

“It is a good deal for them (Coca-Cola) and for us,” Councilman Charles Sodl said.

Burker brought out a concern that the covenant to sell only Coca-Cola products might be too restrictive.

“We definitely want to give Coca-Cola as much business as possible, but the borough may have events at the stadium, or even (Coplay) Community Days might have events up there,” he said.

Burker did not want events outside of Legion baseball to be encumbered by the agreement.

“We will contact them (Coca-Cola) first when we have an event,” Burker said.

Coca-Cola had a stipulation in its agreement that required the owner of the property be the signatory on its agreement. The borough wanted American Legion Post 426 to be the signatory. The lease passed at this session allows Legion baseball at the stadium and clears the way for the Coca-Cola lease with Legion baseball as the beneficiary.

Solicitor James Preston and Coca-Cola made changes to the standard agreement.

“Since the agreement is with the borough, the requirement to sell only Coca-Cola products could be extended to borough hall,” Burker said. Preston limited the agreement.

Coplay Sports Inc. shares Balliet Stadium.

“They will not be required to sell Coca-Cola products at their events, but that is the products they sell now,” Sodl said.

Council expects to have the agreement signed and the new scoreboard erected in time for opening day, April 30.

In other news, council approved a motion to advertise the sale of 38 S. Fourth St. The building was originally purchased with the intent to use it for borough operations. The original idea was nixed, and the unit was rented.

With the purchase of property at 1 Bridge St. for use by public works, the property adjacent to borough hall was expendable. Municipalities cannot sell a building using normal real estate sales procedures. The property must be acquired using a sealed bid process. The minimum bid for the property is $128,000, which is the amount of the most recent appraisal.

The property will be advertised during the last two weeks of March.