EDMONTON – Despite an ongoing state of emergency in Fort McMurray due to an out of control wildfire, the city’s baseball team will still take to the field this summer only it will be somewhere else: Alberta’s capital.
On Monday, the Western Major Baseball League’s Edmonton Prospects announced the Fort McMurray Giants will be welcome to play ball in Rossdale’s Edmonton Ballpark, formerly Telus Field, for the first half of the 2016 season.
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The Giants are getting set to play in their inaugural season in the WMBL.
“It was a no-brainer to welcome the Giants to the ballpark for as long as they need,” Edmonton Prospects owner, Patrick Cassidy, said in a news release. “This is an exciting time in Edmonton for baseball fans as we will have more baseball than we have had in years in this ballpark.”
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“It is truly humbling to have been accepted with such open arms by the Edmonton Prospects baseball organization when our brand new team was faced with such a huge challenge for our opening season,” Dutche Iannetti, vice president and general manager of the Fort McMurray Giants, said in a news release. “It’s incredible to know we’re among such team players in the face of adversity.”
The Edmonton Prospects’ home opener is scheduled for Saturday, May 28 against the Fort McMurray Giants. The Prospects said 10 per cent of all tickets sales from that game and all others between the Prospects and Giants this season, will be going to the Red Cross.
More information on the decision will come at a press conference in Edmonton Tuesday.
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