The Silver Knights will have quite a few more Education Days like this after their lease with the city of Nashua was finalized this week. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Nashua Silver Knights and the city have finalized the new 15-year lease for the team at Holman Stadium that nashuatelegraph.com reported a month ago had been approved by the Board of Alderman.

The lease, divided into three five-year renewable increments, includes a 10 percent increase over the deal that was set to expire. Negotiations between the team and city had been ongoing throughout the last nine months.

The Futures Collegiate Baseball League team, which first arrived in Nashua in 2011, will now be here at least through the early 2040s.

The rent is tied into the number of games that are played each season, Silver Knights team owner John Creedon, Jr. said. Nashua has 30 home dates this season.

“It cements the future of the team at Holman Stadium, beyond the foreseeable future here,” Creedon said when the lease was first approved last month. “It nicely puts us at the mid-point of a 30-year stretch. The team has been here or 15 years at this point; the agreement now contemplates the next 15 years so we’re clearly at the midpoint of a 30-year stretch here which is awesome.

“We’re super proud that the Silver Knights are the longest running team in Holman Stadium’s existence and we’re just thrilled that the future is solid and bright.”

“This agreement secures the future of summer collegiate baseball in Nashua and ensures that generations of residents and visitors will continue to enjoy America’s pastime at Holman Stadium,” Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess said in a release.

The city did some upgrades in the off-season, including new lighting, fire suppression, masonry repointing, and completely overhauled the old football press box down the left field line, transforming it into what the team intends to use as a two-level luxury suite, calling it “The Watch Tower.” Word was the team would begin renting it out once fire capacity was established.

The city also said in a release it intends additional improvements, including refurbishing the locker rooms.

Another key is leases with any team using Holman are basically concessions agreements, as the Knights, called Granite Diamond LLC in the lease, agree to provide concessions to events that project to draw a certain number of fans. For example, that doesn’t include a run-of-the-mill regular season high school baseball game, but Nashua North vs. South, definitely.

And both the team and the city have expressed a desire to hold more events at Holman, sports-related or otherwise. A new city committee, which met for the first time recently at Holman, has been established to explore the opportunities to hold more events “between games and seasons”, the release said. Creedon has long expressed the desire for that to happen.

“Holman Stadium is more than a baseball venue,” Donchess said. “It’s a gathering place for athletic events, our July 4th fireworks displays, and festivals,” Donchess said. “We appreciate the Silver Knights’ commitment to this historic landmark.”

The Silver Knights are the lone remaining franchise still in the league of the four that started in 2011. Seacoast and Torrington have folded and Martha’s Vineyard now competes in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

The FCBL currently has six other teams besides Nashua: Worcester, Westfield, and Lowell in Massachusetts, New Britain and Norwich in Connecticut, and Vermont (Burlington).