Plans unveiled for possible new stadium in Regina

The Dewdney Avenue rail yards could be home to a new baseball stadium in the future.

Former mayoral candidate and city councillor Jerry Flegel had previously said he thought the Dewdney Avenue area would be perfect a perfect area for a new ballpark in the city. 

Now, the Regina Red Sox of the Western Major Baseball League have teamed up with Living Sky Sports Entertainment (LSSE) on a memorandum of understanding to develop a stadium on the vacant land downtown.

“Like a lot of people who live in Regina, I’ve been driving by the empty Dewdney lot for quite a few years now and I’ve been waiting and wondering when it’s going to be developed,” said Red Sox general manager Bernie Eiswirth.

“This is a good time to do it. We’re not playing ball right now so we can start thinking about the future and I think people are going to be dying to be able to go out to a ball game in a beautiful ballpark in the middle of summer to watch baseball in Regina.”

“We think this brings 100,000 people down to the downtown core and Warehouse District between the months of May and August and I think that’s the key to this,” added LSSE founder Alan Simpson. “If there’s something better to be done by the rail yard, let’s get on with it.”

The price tag of the 3,500-seat stadium could be between $20 million and $25 million, though that could fluctuate depending on how negotiations go with the city.

“It really is quite a wide range that we can spend,” Simpson said. “My company is going to help the Red Sox finance a portion of the stadium. We talked to the city already about an amusement tax on a ticket. We think the Red Sox can one way or another contribute $5 million to the project.”

The group would look to get funding from the city, province and federal government to help the project go ahead.

According to a media release, the Okotoks Dawgs attract roughly 4,000 fans per game in a stadium similar to what is being proposed by the Red Sox organization.

Eiswirth says Currie Field, where the club currently plays, is no longer up to par.

“We have bathrooms in a temporary building that were done for the (Regina) Cyclones in the ’90s …,” he said. “We have concession in a temporary building that when it’s 30 Celsius, it’s 30 to 40 Celsius inside the concession; the air conditioning doesn’t work.

“We have one dressing room for the home team (but) we don’t have a dressing room for the visiting team; they get dressed in the dugout. You can’t take a bus to our field. I’ve been doing this for 16 years now and I still have people ask me where Currie Field is.”

The LSSE is excited to work with the city and the Red Sox organization to make the stadium a reality.

“I categorize the presentation and the questions coming back as very favourable,” Simpson said.

Mayor Sandra Masters said the ballpark was informally brought to council to answer some questions about the project.

“They want to be located downtown; we appreciate that. I think it’s fair to say Currie Field could use some love and if you’re going to invest out there, is that the best place to build up that sports destination? Probably not,” Masters said.

“(The ballpark) has to be prioritized in terms of other projects … We need to plan for it and put it in the queue for when we could possibly go forward with it.”

Simpson said having the new stadium built by 2023 would be ambitious. Doing so by 2024 could be closer to reality.

Red Sox president Gary Brotzel believes there will be an appetite for live sports once they are allowed.

“People have been shut in their houses for a year and if you’re a sports fan like me, you can’t wait to get out in public and get to events,” Brotzel said. “I think people will flock to this once it’s built.”

Red Sox formally announce our partnership with Living Skies Sports and Entertainment! See full release and the concept drawings for a new Baseball Stadium that we have proposed to the City of Regina! https://t.co/IDffpswPPq pic.twitter.com/qdQmFNDNLu

— Regina Red Sox (@ReginaRedSox) April 7, 2021

— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray