WINDSOR — Turmoil surrounding the Future Legends Sports Complex has forced the Northern Colorado Owlz to resign from the Pioneer Baseball League and to regroup as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
The team announced Monday it had “made a deal with the Pioneer League to play the rest of our home series this season in Colorado Springs at the Vibes stadium under the name Sky Sox so the players get a proper locker room, training facility and consistent stadium.”
The club’s previous home field, 4Rivers Equipment Stadium at the Future Legends complex, has been inaccessible since April 27 when the Town of Windsor shut it down, claiming that Jeff Katofsky, the complex’s managing member and co-founder, failed to address health and safety issues.
After Future Legends sued to get the facilities reopened, Weld District Judge Kimberly Schutt issued a restraining order May 23, banning public use of the stadium, domed pickleball and volleyball courts and surrounding areas in the troubled sports complex. She held an all-day hearing on June 18 to hear arguments from the town and Future Legends management about whether the restraining order should be lifted and a new occupancy permit granted, but has yet to issue a decision.
The Pioneer Baseball League’s board of directors on Monday accepted the resignation of the Owlz from the league, and entered the Sky Sox as a new team, to complete the Owlz’ 2025 season. The Sky Sox will play their first league game Tuesday in Grand Junction.
“I am so grateful and proud of the Owlz players and coaches who have performed this season with the highest degree of professionalism,” Mike Shapiro, the league’s president, said in a prepared statement. “Under the leadership of manager Dimitri Young and pitching coach Ray King, they’ve conducted themselves with utmost character and have honored the Pioneer League and the game of baseball.”
Young and King will manage the new iteration of the team.
“We appreciate all of the support this season and in the past three years since we moved the team to Northern Colorado,” the Owlz said in a news release Monday afternoon. “The Owlz have been our baby since 2004 when we bought the team and created the brand. Our facilities this season continue to be in maintenance, and without a clear exact timetable, we would continue to have to find different temporary homes in Northern Colorado and changing our operations every series.”
The club said it would “evaluate the team and the future of professional baseball here in the off season as we hope to get back on track and open our youth baseball academy this fall. The Owlz name remains in the hands of the Future Legends ownership team and is expected to continue to be in use as the main brand in Northern Colorado.”
The vision for Future Legends, a 186-acre sports and events facility under construction, includes stadiums, a sports dome, hotels, a dormitory and retail as a destination to host sporting events for youth and professional sports in Northern Colorado.
The shutdown at Future Legends also affected two soccer clubs, the Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC and Northern Colorado Rain FC.
The closure sent the teams in search of other places to play, but many fields were already booked for the summer. The Owlz did play games at City Park Field in Fort Collins on May 30 and May 31 but had to play on opponents’ fields during June. The Hailstorm were ousted from the USL League One conference after Katofsky filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October.
Formerly affiliated with Major League Baseball, the Pioneer League was converted to an independent baseball league in 2021, the same year the Owlz moved to Windsor from Orem, Utah.
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
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