The City of Butler Parks, Recreation Grounds, and Facilities Authority is not interested in selling its share of the Butler BlueSox to the club’s majority ownership group.

The authority announced a deal Dec. 11 to sell its 40 percent of the club to the Nonprofit Development Corporation of Butler for $40,000.

But the majority ownership group, Perfect Game LLP, has since stated it opposes the deal, claiming a clause in a 2009 joinder agreement gives it the first chance at any stake up for sale.

Leo Stepanian II, the authority’s solicitor who also wrote the agreement in 2009, said on Friday he has yet to see such a clause.

“It does not say that,” he said of the agreement. “It just says we may sell to them.”

Butler attorney William “Wink” Robinson, one of the owners in the majority group, said the authority never informed his group it was interested in selling its share of the club. Robinson added his group submitted a letter of interest to the authority on Sept. 25 stating it was interested in buying part or all of the authority’s stake.

Robinson said Wednesday that the majority group now wants to buy the authority’s 40 percent for the same price the authority reached with the nonprofit group.

Ed Codi, the director of the authority, said Friday the authority won’t sell to the majority group.

“We’re not interested in selling to them,” he said. “We’ve never considered selling our 40 percent to them. If this deal doesn’t go through, then we would just retain our 40 percent moving forward.”

Codi said a sale to the Nonprofit Development Corporation is in the best interest of the authority and the community.

A key aspect to the agreement with the nonprofit is that the group would also take over management of Pullman Park, the home of the BlueSox. Pullman Park will be renamed Kelly Automotive Park beginning this upcoming season.

The facilities authority currently manages the park for the city redevelopment authority, which owns the stadium.

With an outside agency managing the park, it would free the authority to focus on other parks in the city.

The authority was originally created to oversee all parks in the city, but has been limited to focusing solely on the baseball park due to financial limitations.

Codi said it is in the authority’s best interest to have a source like the nonprofit group manage the park.

“We already have a working relationship with them,” he said of the nonprofit. “And this would certainly free us up to manage other things.”

Codi said the authority is going to continue pursuing its sale to the nonprofit group.

“We’re going to continue forward with our application to the (Prospect League),” he said. “It best suits the authority and is the best interest of the community.”

Stepanian said the application to the league has been given to the nonprofit group to finish filling out.

In order for a sale to the nonprofit to be finalized, the application would have to be approved by the Prospect League’s board of directors, which consists of one representative from each team in the league.

The representative for the BlueSox is Robinson, though he said in the past he would abstain from a vote on the matter.

Robinson said if the authority and the nonprofit wish to submit the application to the league, then his group would wait for the league’s decision before exploring further legal action.

The next board of directors meeting is Jan. 10 and 11.

The BlueSox team is a Prospect League member for college baseball players. The team is set to play 30 games at the soon-to-be named Kelly Automotive Park this season.

Robinson said while there are some issues to be worked out with ownership, the BlueSox are set to start the new season.

“All the on-the-field stuff is ready to go,” he said.