NORMAL - Heartland College president Jonathan Astroth said Tuesday a "very important confluence of events" is at hand in the effort to bring a minor league baseball team to Normal and build a stadium at a Heartland site.

Astroth said the college remains encouraged and supportive of the work of a committee exploring the feasibility of such a project, but "the next two to four weeks are critical in terms of whether an owner puts together a proposal the town and college think are viable."

The Heartland board will hold a meeting tentatively scheduled for May 6, according to Astroth.

"Bids for our own athletic complex have been received and reviewed by our board," said Astroth. "At that point, we need to either accept those bids or not accept those bids."

Accepting bids on a planned $3.6 million complex for Heartland's baseball, softball and soccer teams that would be ready for use in the spring of 2009 would effectively terminate plans for the minor league baseball facility.

On that front, consultant Mike Thiessen said Tuesday he has received signed "memos of intent" from five ownership groups interested in the project.

"We do have five groups. We couldn't have done any better," Thiessen said. "They are very impressive groups. We have unbelievable people interested in this project. We have prominent Illinois business people.

"Two groups own multiple clubs. Four of the five groups have previous minor league baseball ownership experience, some in the majority and some in the minority. I think that's good. And they all substantial net worth."

While declining to be more specific on the identity of the prospective ownership groups, Thiessen will begin negotiations with the first group on Friday.

While Heartland and the Town of Normal have said any team owner would have to absorb the majority of the cost of building a stadium and fielding a team, Thiessen said it is too early to know what effect that will have on reaching an agreement.

"I'm putting together the financial profile of what that might look like before we sit down with the first group on Friday," he said. "It's not a surprise what we're looking for. It's the art of negotiation. They'll ask for a billion, we'll say zero and we'll meet someplace in between."

Committee chair Alan Sender believes his group will be "backing off of this" for the time being.

"The town and Heartland have to talk about what they have available for the project and how they want to participate," said Sender. "They will be working with Mike, and Mike will have to negotiate with the groups. I don't expect the committee to do much until we get further down the road."

Heartland had originally set an April 1 deadline for determining whether there was serious interest in the minor league project. Echoing earlier statements of Thiessen and committee members, Astroth is satisfied such interest exists.

"The next serious hurdle is to get actual serious proposals to evaluate," Astroth said. "We are hopeful the next several weeks will produce that."

Astroth believes a stadium capable of housing a minor league team would benefit Bloomington-Normal as well as Heartland.

"It's a win-win proposition," he said. "Our own, more modest complex would serve the community, too. But a stadium certainly opens up way more opportunities than we would be able to provide."

Heartland's complex would feature a baseball field, softball field, soccer field, a practice soccer field and other amenities.

If the minor league stadium is built, Astroth expects Heartland would have to build a softball field and practice soccer field elsewhere.