Little Rock. Ark. ? A move by the Wichita Wranglers baseball team to Springdale, Ark., has been announced to team staff members, according to a former spokesman who said he resigned after a meeting where the news was broken.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Monday that Randall Kamm, who had been the team’s media relations director, said the Wranglers announced the coming move to Springdale to staff members Saturday. Kamm said he resigned immediately after the meeting, in which Wranglers president Jon Dandes participated by teleconference.

“Jon said that the Wranglers have reached an agreement with Springdale, and we are moving,” Kamm told the Arkansas newspaper. “He said they just worked out a deal during the last few hours.”

Kamm said he thought Wranglers General Manager Eric Edelstein knew of a deal for more than a month, though Edelstein insists he is unsure of the team’s future.

“We know there have been negotiations, that they have been talking numbers that might become more public,” Edelstein said. “But we have no information any deal is done in any way.”

The Wranglers, who play in the Class AA Texas League along with the Arkansas Travelers of Little Rock, reportedly have been negotiating with Springdale-area officials since voters in the Arkansas city approved on July 11 a bond issue to build a 6,000-seat baseball stadium for a minor-league team.

The Wranglers, a farm team for the Kansas City Royals, are owned by Bob and Mindy Rich of Buffalo, N.Y. The family also owns the National Baseball Congress, an amateur baseball organization and Wichita mainstay since the 1930s.

Jerry Taylor, director of operations for the NBC, confirmed the teleconference but said it merely informed employees of ongoing negotiations and a potential deal.

“They’re working on it, but nothing’s been finalized,” Taylor said. “And I know Eric did not know of anything beforehand. If he found out before us, it was right before the meeting, not weeks ago.”

According to Kamm, Dandes told the Wranglers staff that Wichita would not be given an opportunity to exercise its option – contained in the city’s lease agreement with the team for Lawrence-Dumont Stadium – to purchase the Wranglers. The Democrat-Gazette said that lease included maintenance default and other reasons that would allow the baseball team to break its lease.

“As far as that 30-day option goes to buy the team, we’re not going to exercise that, we’re not even going to let them have the 30 days to think about it,” Kamm said Dandes told the team’s staff.

Last week, Wichita billionaire Paul Ruffin had said he would buy the team from the city, to keep it in Wichita, if city officials exercised their option to purchase the Wranglers.

On July 11, Springdale voters approved extension of a 1 percent sales tax to pay off a bond issued that would finance a $50 million project that includes the planned new baseball park. Officials have said they hoped to have it ready for the 2008 season.

Springdale alderman Mike Overton said he was unaware a deal was finalized. He also said the city was working under the pretense that Wichita could purchase the team if it decides to break the stadium lease, which expires after the 2009 season.