Kokomo Jackrabbits cancel 2025 season amid legal drama
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An ongoing lawsuit between the parent of the Kokomo Jackrabbits and the city of Kokomo has caused the baseball team to cancel its 2025 season.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the team said that “legal matters beyond our control” led to the decision and “questions remain for the foreseeable future.”
The city filed suit in October against Kokomo Baseball LLC alleging the team did not properly renew its lease for Kokomo Municipal Stadium, a claim the team disputes.
The lawsuit claims that the five-year lease agreement, originally signed in July 2014, stipulated that the team could exercise its right to renew the lease within 90 days of the existing lease’s expiration.
The team renewed the lease in 2019, but the city alleges the team did not provide a written notice of renewal to extend the lease another five years, causing the lease to expire on September 30, 2024.
“Despite multiple requests from the City to do so, Defendants have refused to surrender the Premises,” the lawsuit says. “Their refusal has caused and continues to cause the City damages and has interfered with the City’s attempts to secure a new baseball team to occupy the baseball stadium.”
Kokomo Baseball filed a counterclaim against the city, stating it did provide notice to the city to renew the lease for another five years.
In a letter attached to the team’s response to the lawsuit, an attorney for Kokomo Baseball said the team expressed during a virtual meeting on May 17 that it was renewing, and that it was not understood “that a written notice was either requested or being required by the City.”
A ruling in Howard Count Circuit Court could come by the end of this month.
Regardless, the legal situation forced the Kokomo Jackrabbits to withdraw from the Northwoods League’s 2025 summer season, the schedule for which has already been released.
“While this necessarily doesn’t mean the end of the Jackrabbits, however as it stands the future holds more questions than answers right now,” the team said on its Facebook page. “As of right now, it isn’t ‘goodbye,’ we hope it’s ‘we’ll see you soon.'”
The Northwoods League is a developmental summer league for collegiate baseball players. The Jackrabbits are the only Indiana team in the league.