Page 48 - 03_April-2025

SHINE ON, YOU CRAZY
DIAMOND
Spruce Grove’s new
ballpark is in a league
of its own
by SCOTT MESSENGER
P
at Cassidy doesn’t want to
say that baseball is second-
ary in his $75-million ball-
park venture, but he knows
that, really, it is.
About 30 kilometres west of Edmonton,
on the eastern edge of the city of Spruce
Grove, he’s building a new home for his
beloved Energy City Cactus Rats baseball
team, which he’s owned since 2007 (it
was formerly called the Prospects). But
he understands the priorities. This is
the Western Canadian Baseball League
(WCBL) — stacked with college kids,
many of whom are due back on campus
by late summer. That means this place,
the Energy City Metro Ballpark, will see
games for fewer than four months a year.
And, by Cassidy’s latest estimates, the
ballpark, with surrounding amenities,
will cover 65 acres.
That’s why, “the key factor is: What
kind of fan experience can you create,
and what do you have to do to get people
to come to the ballpark and enjoy them-
selves?” asks Cassidy, who has a history
in construction and development, and in
organized sports in various ways, includ-
ing playing baseball.
With capacity for approximately 3,500
fans, the ballpark is mainly inspired by
Okotoks’s Seaman Stadium, home of the
WCBL Dawgs, which Cassidy sees as
setting “a high bar” for fan experience.
The Dawgs are regarded as having one
of the best development programs in
Canada. He believes he’s creating a worthy rival. In a
step up from Re/Max field, where his team played as
the Prospects before losing the lease to the Riverhawks in
2019 and downsizing to a diamond in Sherwood Park,
the new field will be surrounded (in phases) by year-
round and seasonal amenities. They include a restaurant
and microbrewery, a concert amphitheatre and 84 condo
units, half of which will overlook the outfield. And to
help make ends meet, a self-storage business will
operate beneath the concourse. In short, it’s a beer
and a hot dog place, and then some.
“I think you’re going to see this facility recognized
as one of the top three in Canada,” says Cassidy.
Norman Leach, executive director of the Greater
Parkland Regional Chamber of Commerce, already sees
the project as a home run for the area and its roughly
4,000 businesses (750 of which are Chamber of Com-
merce members). Naturally, it will serve the 61,000
residents of Spruce Grove and the nearby town of Stony
Plain, along with thousands more from surrounding
Parkland County. But Leach expects the new attraction
to cause tourists to linger (and spend) in the area, and
draw Edmontonians, too.
“From a community point of view, I can’t imagine that
it’s a bad thing,” he says.
There is a catch, however. The ballpark — once
expected to have been operating by summer 2022 — was
delayed due in part to COVID construction delays. As of
February, construction progress was such that a projected
home opener of June 7 was labelled “tentative” on the
team website.
“It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” says
Cassidy of his project. “It’s been the challenge of my
lifetime but I feel like it’s been the challenge I was meant
to take on.”
That drive keeps him from dwelling on the risk.
“You can’t lay awake at night because you gotta get up
and be sharp, and be ready to take on whatever the day
is going to throw at you,” says Cassidy.
Or pitch at you. That’s part of what Leach feels is
special about actually being at a game, which he never
watches on TV. But in a ballpark, enjoying the sunshine
and a cold drink, he likes seeing the drama unfold: the
pitcher launching a hardball at 140 kilometres per hour,
the batter preparing for the challenge by way of luck,
skill, wits and force of will.
“They say that hitting a baseball at speed is the hardest
feat in sports,” marvels Leach. “You have 1/100th of a
second to get it right.”
Tough odds. For Cassidy, though, they’re just part of
the game. Or, rather, the experience. ED.
48 EDify. APRIL.25