NORMAL - A committee trying to bring a minor league baseball team to Normal will recommend an ownership group to the Town of Normal council and the Heartland Community College board on Tuesday.

Well-known minor league owner Mike Veeck said Friday he would like that group to feature his involvement.

"We have three solid proposals in front of us from reputable, and we believe fiscally viable, groups," committee chair Alan Sender said. "We have one proposal we will recommend to Heartland and the town council. We think we have a very attractive and viable opportunity presented to us."

Sender declined to say whether Veeck was part of either the three groups considered viable or the one group the committee will recommend.

"There's been no secret to Mike's early interest. But how he fits into this and if he fits into this is something we'll take to the council," said Sender. "It's certainly possible Mike Veeck could be in the mix before it's over."

Veeck, who expressed interest in bringing an independent league team to Normal on a March visit to the proposed stadium site on the Heartland campus, remains "absolutely" interested in the project.

"As far as I'm concerned, our hat is in the ring," Veeck said.

Veeck's hat would have needed to stay on his head if not for the fact he is in the process of divesting his ownership stakes in three major league-affiliated minor league teams.

Anyone with such ownership would not be allowed to be part of a Normal group because that would infringe on the territorial rights of the Peoria Chiefs, the Chicago Cubs' affiliate in the Class A Midwest League.

"That would not be a consideration now," Veeck said. "That makes it possible, makes it easier. This would be a separate entity."

Veeck is part owner of the St. Paul Saints and Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association, but would place a Normal team in the Frontier League. Both are independent leagues.

According to documents released Friday in Heartland's board packet for the Tuesday meeting, the board on Tuesday will recommend to award a contract on June 4 for no more than $4,991,000 to Johnston Contractors for its own athletic complex if no agreement to build a minor league stadium has been reached by that date.

Heartland had originally committed $3.5 million to a complex that would feature competition fields for the Hawks' baseball, softball and soccer teams as well as a soccer practice field, a centralized building for media use, a concession stand, locker rooms and restrooms.

Heartland is studying revisions to its plan with an eye on lowering costs. But the school believes additional funding would be necessary to build an acceptable complex. The Hawks' baseball and softball teams would both call a potential minor league stadium home.

Over the past year, Heartland has planned for its Phase II construction project on campus - which besides the athletic fields consists of six new buildings being built at the Raab Road site. The sports fields have been budgeted and planned as a separate project.

Veeck said his minor league teams have had successful relationships while sharing a facility with college teams in the past.

"Amateur baseball should and will come first," he said. "What doesn't work is being arrogant. The community doesn't need a ballpark. But the ballpark can't exist without a community. It's important to remember that order."

While acknowledging a playing field could be ready for Heartland baseball and softball by next spring, Veeck would like to see a Normal team make a 2010 Frontier League debut.

"That's the only thing I was fairly adamant about," he said. "Getting the building built is not the problem. Getting yourself integrated into the community in a real way takes time. People are not going to get bowled over immediately. You have to prove something, and you can't do that in 10 months. You've got to show your hand and represent what you really stand for."

Veeck would seek out "40 to 50 percent" local ownership.

"We'll try to get people involved in the community who are interested in having fun and making a dollar or two," he said.

Veeck, who worked in the Chicago White Sox front office in the 1970s while his father Bill owned the team, is excited by the possibility of owning a team two hours from Chicago, where he and his wife still have family.

"There was a certain joy to dealing with Midwesterners," he said of his March meeting with the Normal committee. "They were direct and straightforward and I like the fact they have a quasi government drive to get baseball. I thought they showed baseball as an institution a great deal of respect."

Along with his baseball interests, Veeck is a consultant and motivational speaker who preaches a "Fun is Good" theme.

Michele Steinbacher contributed to this report.