Nov. 7 — The Peninsula Oilers said Thursday that the team will not compete in the Alaska Baseball League in the 2025 season “due to financial difficulties.”

The Oilers were 23-19 in 2024, including 16-5 at home.

Team president Michael Tice said the franchise will take a year off to focus on fundraising and developing future fundraising streams.

“A bit of both,” he said. “We definitely need to come up with some better fundraising strategies because games just aren’t cutting it anymore.”

Traditionally, the team has raised much of its operating funds from bingo. The building that hosted the games also included housing for visiting teams in half of the facility, which was referred to in the league as the Bingo Hilton.

That building will be part of the Oilers’ strategy as they try to stabilize themselves financially.

“Our main focus will just be on new revenue streams,” Tice said. “We can’t rely on bingo to bring in the money. We still have that big building. We’ll rent it out for events and we have a place where we host the coaches, but we’re going. let’s arrange it for housing”.

The departure leaves the league with four teams — Anchorage Glacier Pilots, Anchorage Bucs, Mat-Su Miners and Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks.

Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher said he had just completed the 2025 schedule when he took a conference call Tuesday with league general managers and received the Oilers’ request to suspend the season.

“Now I have to pull it back and redo it for four teams,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s not good for the league, but they have money problems… Hopefully they’ll be back in 2026.”

Christopher said league bylaws allow for a one-year regrouping period, a standard that was referenced in the Oilers’ announcement posted Thursday.

It read in part: “The Oilers appreciate the ABL for supporting clubs in need by allowing a one-year regrouping period – a provision that has benefited several teams in the past. The focus for 2025 will be stabilizing finances. The Peninsula Oilers Board of Directors appreciates the continued support of fans, sponsors and the Kenai Peninsula community.”

Derek Foote, who wrapped up his first season as Glacier Pilots general manager over the summer, said the season will continue with the four teams. Foote was the Oilers GM for more than a year before stepping down in early May.

“We’re going to have a good season,” he said of the ABL. “We’re just going to have to deal with the schedule a little bit and make some changes. It’s always a sad thing for a team like the Oilers, with their history, not to be in the league. But things go like everything else, and we’re going to do some things happen and we’ll have the right schedule. We’ll play the same amount of games.”

Both Foote and Christopher said their franchises are in good shape financially.

“I’m going into my 23rd year now, so we’re pretty quiet,” he said.

The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks were charter members of the ABL, but left the league in 2015.

Both Foote and Christopher have expressed interest in bringing the Goldpanners back to the ABL. Foote said his team will travel to Fairbanks next summer to compete in the annual Midnight Sun Game.

“We have to come together as a league and make things better,” Foote said. “If we can get the Oilers back online and maybe get Fairbanks into the league, we’re going to look really good for the 2026 season.”

The Oilers had just completed their 50th anniversary season and have a long history of future Major League Baseball players spending time on their roster.

“It’s a very popular franchise,” Christopher said. “They’ve had a lot of big leaguers. It’s a shame, but hopefully they’ll come back.”