Old Business
At the conclusion of the 2023 season, Roberto had seen all of the 120 teams that remained in — or, in the case of the St. Paul Saints and Sugar Land Space Cowboys, were elevated to — minor league baseball. And but for days of off-and-on rain in 2023, Melvin would similarly have visited every major and minor league stadium. For the moment then, the answer to "What's Left?" was Atrium Health Ballpark, the home of the KANNAPOLIS CANNON BALLERS. (See The List for a full account of where we have gone and who we have seen.)
This Year
When Major League Baseball coercively took control of Minor League Baseball in 2020, 42 teams were told they didn't figure in the reorganized structure. The teams that were "invited" — MLB's word, not ours — to sign a Player Development License were told what physical improvements were needed by the 2025 season in order to conform with new minimum facility standards. Most teams have renovated their existing facilities, or are doing so, and the deadline has proven flexible if measurable progress is being made.
Four new ballparks will open this year but we plan to see just one; Daybreak Field, the new home of the Pacific Coast League SALT LAKE BEES. In the 19th-century, if you started a new community in the Rockies, an opera house would have been built. Today, Larry H. Miller, the diversified holding company that owns the bees and is developing Daybreak on 1,300 acres in South Jordan, Utah. has constructed a stadium. (The Larry H. Miller Company is also part of Big League Utah, a coalition lobbying for one of the anticipated MLB expansion teams.)
Looking Further Ahead
We have strategically decided to hold off on seeing the other three new ballparks until the stadiums in Wilson, North Carolina, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Richmond, Virginia (see below) have also opened. Not to take anything away from this year's travel plans, but 2026 looks to be very exciting.
2025
The Southern League Mississippi Braves relocated to Columbus, Georgia, and rebranded as the COLUMBUS CLINGSTONES. Peachy! Minor league ball has been played (with breaks) in Columbus since 1926, with the Catfish (South Atlantic League) hot rodding it to Bowling Green in 1990.
The Down East Wood Ducks (Carolina League) moved from charming but antiquated Grainger Stadium to Spartanburg, becoming the HUB CITY SPARTANBURGERS. The new ballpark is part of a $250M redevelopment plan for downtown. A spartanburger is a very well-done hamburger, served cold on a stale bun with no toppings or condiments, or maybe it's a demonym for the residents of this former rail hub in South Carolina.
 |
| yet another stadium named for Fifth Third Bank |
The Tennessee, now KNOXVILLE SMOKIES, also of the Southern League, returned to its former home after a quarter-century in the suburbs. Whaddaya bet the lease and bond issue on Smokies Stadium in Kodak was for 25 years?
2026
The City of Wilson, North Carolina, reached agreement in December 2023 with the CAROLINA MUDCATS, the Milwaukee Brewers and a private development partner to move the team from Zebulon as part of a $287.5M development project (City of Wilson). The Carolina League team's new ballpark will be located next to Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, potentially making the city of 50,000 a regional entertainment destination.
 |
| Whirligig Park |
The CHATTANOOGA LOOKOUTS are moving three miles south as part of a 140-acre, mixed-use development plan for the former Wheland Foundry and U.S. Pipe sites (South Broad Chattanooga). The Southern League team had originally hoped to be in their new home for the 2025 season but financing and construction delays pushed the timeline out a year.
The HILLSBORO HOPS (Northwest League), who have played at the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex since relocating from Yakima in 2013, are moving to another site within the public park.
 |
| The new stadium is planned to be north of the Hops' current home, replacing Recreational Fields 4-6. |
It's not a game of musical chairs if you don't remove a chair, which is what occurred in the California League. The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes extended the lease of their current stadium and negotiated fulfillment of the MLB facility requirements there, while at the same time agreeing to move to a ballpark being built as part of the 200-acre Ontario Regional Recreation Complex. The Inland Empire 66ers will move to The Epicenter — one of the best stadium names in baseball — and assume the Quakes moniker. The Modesto Nuts will move to San Bernardino and become the 66ers. For all that, we gain only one new stadium/team, the NEW ONTARIO SQUAD.
The RICHMOND FLYING SQUIRRELS have to be the most patient team in minor league baseball, waiting 15 years for a new stadium without (publicly, at least) threatening to move. The city selected a developer for a 67-acre mixed-use development in 2022 but the deal fell through, potentially forcing the Eastern League team to move. Under deadline pressure from MLB, Gilbane was named the developer in July 2024. The global builder with over 150-years of experience committed to constructing a new ballpark by 2026.
2027
The EUGENE EMERALDS failed to conjure public monies for a new stadium after the University of Oregon, where the Northwest League team has played, declined to make the improvements requested by MLB. Lane County decided against allocating funds towards the $43M budgetary gap and by a two-to-one margin, voters turned down a $15M bond measure proposed by the Eugene City Council. At the end of the 2024 season, the Ems' general manager said he is speaking with municipalities in Idaho and southern and central Oregon. The team could potentially move as early as 2027.
2028
The history of the A’s plans to build a new stadium and associated development on the Oakland waterfront, then alternatively to move to Las Vegas, is so sordid that the less said, the better. On October 9, 2024, the Tropicana Hotel was imploded (5:13 video) to create a site for a future ballpark (and, of course, associated development). The LAS VEGAS ATHLETICS hope to be in their new home for the 2028 season.
When the SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS were sold in fall 2022 to a consortium that included seasoned baseball executives and a local real estate developer, it seemed like a breakthrough (Ballpark Digest) in the years-long hand-wringing over a new stadium. Two more years would pass before MLB threatened to relocate the Texas League team, which resulted in the City approving broad financing terms in September 2024 and one month later, inking with Bexar County a Memorandum of Understanding (San Antonio Report) that calls for a new ballpark by 2028.
2029
The Devil Rays, as they were still called then, had played just 10 seasons at Tropicana Field when in 2007 they started to talk about moving. The initial proposal, to build a new ballpark at the location of lovely Al Lang Stadium, was dead on arrival and over the next 16 years, numerous alternatives were explored, including the novel idea of a season split between Florida and Montreal.
In September 2023, the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, the TAMPA BAY RAYS and their real estate partner, Hines, reached agreement on a development plan, including a new stadium, on 86 acres in the Gas Plant District (City of St. Petersburg). Thirteen months later, Hurricane Milton tour the roof off of Tropicana Field (hat tip: Funkadelic) and it has been downhill from there. On March 13, the Rays announced that they were walking away from the agreement that had taken years to accomplish.
 |
Apparently, a bird in the hand is not worth two in the bush. The Tampa Bay Times summarized the whole shitstorm, including the Rays' announcement, the mayor of St. Petersburg saying he has "no interest in working with this ownership group," and the commissioner of baseball encouraging the current owners to sell. A Pyrrhic victory for Stu Sternberg.
UNDETERMINED
Despite being just months away from MLB's original deadline, several teams have neither formulated a plan to pay for their required facility improvements or — like the Eugene Emeralds, above — publicly announced that they are going to move.
Among them are the venerable ARKANSAS TRAVELERS, a Texas League team with roots going back to 1895. The current lease expires after the 2026 season, so stadium improvements and lease terms will likely be negotiated concurrently. The outfield in Dickey-Stephens Park, on the Arkansas River in North Little Rock, has been a literal and financial sinkhole since 2016, which may make both sides reticent to invest further.
Everyone agrees that Funko Field, home of the EVERETT AQUASOX (Northwest League), cannot be renovated to comply with the new facility standards. The environmental review for a new stadium has been completed and the Everett City Council voted to solicit quotes from design-build firms. However, no site has been selected and the only secure funding is $7.4M earmarked by the State of Washington, a small fraction of the foreseeable cost.
Also contentious are the talks between Davenport, Iowa, and the QUAD CITIES RIVER BANDITS of the Midwest League. The team owner claims the contract is clear; the facility improvements mandated by MLB are the City's responsibility. The mayor has said, if the City knew about these added costs, it might not have extended the lease agreement in 2021.
BEYOND THE HORIZON
The owner of the KANSAS CITY ROYALS has been stating since 2021 that a new ballpark can be built for the same cost as renovating Kauffman Stadium, the fifth-oldest major league facility. The proposal has been controversial. “The K,” as it is sometimes known, is popular with fans (us included). Ownership has offered to pay only a small portion of the cost of a new ballpark while revealing that it is prepared to invest $1B in real estate outside of the stadium.
State legislators have given the Royals the option of using Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonds but when a 40-year extension of an existing 3/8th-cent sales tax benefiting the team (and the Kansas City Chiefs) was put before voters in April 2024, the referendum failed with over 58 percent opposed.
The Royals’ lease doesn’t expire until 2030 and ownership has been slow to provide details about its plans. It has proposed multiple possible stadium locations, conceivably playing municipalities against each other. Following the team’s loss to the Yankees in the 2024 ALDS, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas expressed his frustration and hope for more specifics by the end of the year.
The CHICAGO WHITE SOX have also expressed a desire for a new ballpark but a proposal to move to a 62-acre site on the Chicago River known as "The 78," south of the Loop, is still very conceptual. There are lots of moving pieces, all of which need to be resolved before this proposal becomes a plan.
Finally, the commissioner of baseball, Fred-somebody, supports expanding the MLB to 32 teams. He has stated repeatedly that expansion will not occur until plans for the Rays and the A's are "settled," a term of art. Nevertheless, there are two more major league stadiums coming sometime in the 2030s.
No comments:
Post a Comment