The Edmonton Prospects (summer collegiate; Western Canada Baseball League) will play the 2020 season at RE/MAX Field, but the team’s future at the former MiLB facility remains to be determined.
Earlier this year, Edmonton officials declined an option to extend their lease with the Prospects to cover the 2020 season, deciding instead to open the facility to bids for a new 10-year lease. Prospects ownership was among the groups to submit a bid, proposing a long-term agreement that would include renovations to RE/MAX Field itself along with new development in the surrounding area. Edmonton is not pursuing that plan, however, as city officials have confirmed that they are negotiating an agreement that could lead to a separate group taking over operations at RE/MAX Field, putting more of an emphasis on events and concerts and less emphasis on baseball.
Until that deal is worked out, however, the Prospects will return to RE/MAX Field for at least one more season, confirming the 2020 lease and the Western Canada Baseball League All-Star Game:
City spokesman Mark Torjusen confirmed the extension in an email to Postmedia Wednesday afternoon, about a month after the collegiate baseball club started selling tickets for the 2020 summer season.
Club president Patrick Cassidy said the team got the go-ahead to start booking dates for the season and the league’s all-star game even though the deal wasn’t official.
“The city will continue to work on the long-term strategy for the ballpark,” Torjusen said in the email, referring to the call for proposals back in April for a 10-year lease of the 9,200-seat stadium.
Formerly known as Telus Field, RE/MAX Field opened in 1995 as an affiliated Minor League Baseball facility for the Edmonton Trappers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League). It has not hosted an affiliated MiLB team since the Trappers moved to Round Rock, TX after the 2004 season, but has been more recently used for summer-collegiate action by the Prospects.
Rendering courtesy Edmonton Prospects.
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