The Edmonton Prospects of the Western Canadian Baseball League will not be taking the field next season due to delays in construction of their new ballpark in Spruce Grove.
The collegiate team announced plans to relocate to the new field in May 2020 as the Edmonton Riverhawks took over RE/MAX Field in Edmonton’s river valley, but delays have persisted and the opening date for the $50 million field has now been pushed to sometime in 2024.
Patrick Cassidy is the managing partner for Gold Sports and Entertainment Group Corp., the company that operates the baseball team and will manage the facility. He said the decision to keep a team off the field next season is purely a business one.
“Organizations only have so many resources, whether it’s people or funds or whatever the case may be, and you have to decide where you want to target those dollars and where you want to focus your attention and get your people working on the priority items,” said Cassidy.
“Right now our priority is getting that ballpark up and built and open and ready to go once it is open … We just felt that playing an interim season in an interim ballpark somewhere was going to basically take away from that focus.”
Cassidy said he isn’t too worried about Prospect players being left without a team.
“Players are going to find a place to play. Some will find opportunities within our league and some might find opportunities in other leagues,” Cassidy said.
“There are lots of available players out there and we’ll certainly keep our eyes on some of the key people that we wanted to bring back this year, and they may still be available next year.”
Cassidy said a move like this has been made before in the league when the Okotoks Dawgs took a year off after moving from Calgary 15 years ago. The Dawgs have since become the WCBL’s most successful franchise.
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