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While Major League Baseball is set to begin its latest season on Thursday, Saskatoon is getting in on the action in a different way.
On Wednesday, the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) announced its latest expansion franchise will set down roots in the Bridge City starting in the 2024 season.
“The WCBL values the Saskatoon market; it has always felt it was missing from our family,” said WCBL president Kevin Kvame.
It’s been almost a decade since the league last played a game in the city. The Yellow Jackets franchise folded in 2014 after joining in 2002.
“I don’t think the WCBL ever wanted to leave Saskatoon. It’s a major market in Saskatchewan and Western Canada where our league footprint is,” Kvame said.
But there is a new commitment from Saskatoon Entertainment Group (SEG), which will be in charge of leading this new team into the league. It has done so by signing a long-term lease.
“We’ve agreed to a 10-year deal with Cairns Field using this great facility (Gordie Howe Sports Complex) and Cairns as well,” SEG’s Steve Hildebrand said.
“We’re committed to upgrading not only the concessions, but new surroundings surrounding the ballpark. All the changes will be in place for the start of the 2024 season.”
Some of the changes fans will see with some of the renovations are plans to redo the infield and deck along the third base line. Hildebrand said it would be something similar to the Flight Deck at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
There are also plans to help grow the game at the grassroots level by SEG, which wants to make sure it’s part of the community and this is a way to help promote the team and the sport.
Hildebrand said this is part of SEG’s long-term plan and he wants to make sure people from Saskatoon have a chance to play in their hometown.
“We want to have some local guys on the team; that’s going to be a mandate from me. Those guys are also going to be able to help minor baseball,” he said.
With the addition of Saskatoon in 2024, the league will have 12 teams and Kvame said this will help in building some good rivalries in the sport.
“It’s exciting in the baseball realm (to have) that Saskatoon-and-Regina rivalry or some of the other communities in Saskatchewan and then the rivalries with Alberta will be there as well like they always were,” Kvame said.
But there is a possibility in the near future that the league could grow to 16 teams, which is what Kvame is hopeful for.
Some of the other cities the WCBL expansion committee is looking at are Prince Albert, North Battleford, another team in the Calgary or Edmonton areas, Drumheller, Lloydminster and Grande Prairie.
Kvame said they want to make sure each community having a legitamite ballpark and committed partnership with the community and ownership in order to explore those options further.
But for Saskatoon they are looking forward to 2024 and fans can get in the process of what the team will be called and look like.
“We want to throw out to the community the team name (and) the team logo. We’re going to have a little contest with it, have a little fun with it. We think that’s important,” Hildebrand said.
Right now, the team is just being labelled the Saskatoon Baseball Club as a placeholder until an official name has been decided on and has started making its presence on social media.