LeLacheur :Park in Lowell, Mass. will likely be the home of an FCBL franchise next season. (UML photo)

NASHUA – The Nashua Silver Knights may be struggling but the league they play in reportedly just scored a major victory.

Word was silently making the rounds in the last two weeks that the Futures Collegiate League was on the verge of landing an agreement with UMass Lowell to place a franchise at LeLacheur Park, the former home of the now defunct Lowell Spinners, for the 2026 season.

That deal is now set according to a report on the website insidelowell.com.

Nashua Silver Knights owner John Creedon, Jr., who has been the point man in negotiations with the university, which owns the park, would not comment, nor would other league officials. A press conference, however, has been scheduled at LeLacheur on Wednesday, July 30 to announce the newest FCBL locale.

The FCBL was facing competition for LeLacheur in the last year, sources said, from the professional independent Frontier League, which has a franchise in former FCBL locale Brockton, Mass. But UML officials as well as FCBL Commissioner Joe Paolucci were on hand back in early June for the Silver Knights second Education Day Game that drew over 3,000 fans. That, insiders say, was the tipping point. It’s no wonder Creedon said that afternoon “Today was a good day for the Futures League” but he wouldn’t elaborate why.

Who will own the team is not readily apparent. The league for the last year was more intent on securing the facility and would solicit potential owners later.

The FCBL is also looking to get an eighth franchise, likely Rockland, Mass. Paolucci has told The Telegraph on more than one occasion that the facility there, Veterans Memorial Park, would be made available to them if they can find an owner/operator.

Lowell, of course, already has FCBL ties, because former Spinners owner Drew Weber brought the Silver Knights to Nashua back in 2011 and owned the franchise until selling it to Creedon and his family six years ago. Weber was a key figure in the creation of the FCBL.

The Spinners made LeLacheur a premier destination for two decades until Major League Baseball, after the pandemic, folded the New York Penn League as part of its contraction of the minor leagues. The FCBL has benefited from that, landing franchises in former NYPenn League homes Norwich and Burlington, Vt.

Also in limbo are the FCBL’s Pittsfield (Mass.) Suns, with part of historic Wahconah Park – specifically the grandstand – deemed unsafe. The website iBerkshires.com reported city’s park commission voted this past week to demolish the facility. The Suns, owned by the Goldklang Group, are on their second dark year but are still paying dues to be part of the FCBL with the hope Pittsfield will soon renovate Wahconah.

LeLacheur is also in need of repair – UML plays its home games there – but any work according to the Lowell report should be completed by next spring.