What’s new at Nat Bailey? There’s plenty already and more to come

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When we checked in on Nat Bailey Stadium back in January, it could easily been confused for the site of a future apartment tower, with dump trucks and digging machinery traipsing over a gravel field.

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On Monday morning, the grand old ballpark, which first opened in 1951, looked in mid-season form.

The Vancouver Canadians play their high-A Northwest League home opener Tuesday night (7:05 p.m.) at the Nat against the Eugene Emeralds. Fans will notice a new playing surface, several sections with new seats, larger dugouts, extra protective netting down both lines, and an extended outfield fence in front of a refurbished bullpen.

There are new foul poles. That’s how finicky these changes have been.

Major League Baseball gave its farm system set-up a rethink during the minor leagues’ COVID play stoppage in 2020 and one of the things that came out of it was an upgraded facility standards clause for all affiliate teams. The big-league clubs wanted to make sure that their prospects were developing in the best possible environments.

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What’s happening at the Nat is happening across minor league baseball. There’s still more to come at the Nat — C’s general manager Allan Bailey says that work will continue all season — but it was easy to wonder even a few weeks ago whether the stadium would be ready for Tuesday.

“There was some worry there,” Bailey said Monday, “but I think the crew that we have working on it and the staff we have with the team, there’s always been a mentality that, ‘We’ve got to find a way.’ Everybody’s done that. They’ve pulled together and gotten it done.

“The thing that I keep talking about to all the staff is how proud I am of everybody to get us to this point. A month ago, we didn’t have grass on the field. And since then, we’ve had weather challenges. The grounds crew has done an incredible job with all the turmoil in the weather we’ve had.”

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The C’s are off to a 5-4 start to the season. They are once again a Toronto Blue Jays farm team and Toronto has sent their No. 1 rated prospect Arjun Nimmala to Vancouver, which certainly suggests that they are content with how the Nat is coming together. Nimmala is a 19-year-old shortstop. The average age for position players in the six-team Northwest League last season was 22. Nimmala hit 16 home runs in 83 games last summer with single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, but at his age, they could have had him start this season in Dunedin again if they were concerned about the facility in Vancouver.

“We are getting to the point where this venue is going to be top-notch. It’s part of what Major League Baseball is doing. They’re finding ways to make sure that these facilities are to a standard,” Bailey said.

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The changes also bring challenges. Fans will also notice a shortage of parking. Spaces were lost last season to a temporary clubhouse in the lot on the third-base side. This time around, there is also covered batting cages now stationed beyond the left-field wall taking up some spots.

Bailey says that the C’s are working on videos that will go up on the team’s social media channels to help remind people of all the different options of how to get to the ballpark. He also said that the team plans to go out of its way to make sure that there are spots for the nearby community centre.

“The parking for this venue is not perfect. It’s never been,” Bailey said. “We’ll have to find ways to help out there.”

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As well, the barbecue area that had been down the first-base line will once again be missing. The C’s shut it down midway through last season in preparation for a building Bailey says will eventually house the C’s clubhouse and two batting changes. The roof of the building will have a viewing deck for fans that will serve food and beverages once it’s complete, but Bailey says construction won’t be finished until next winter.

That’s 400 or so seats that the C’s are losing for every game.

The C’s have traditionally had their clubhouse on the third-base side. Last year, they were in the temporary clubhouse while their regular clubhouse was being redone. They move back into that clubhouse for this year and the visiting clubhouse now moves to that spot in the parking lot, as the old clubhouse on the first-base side has become a weight room.

The team will once again have its vast array of special promotions. There are nine fireworks nights, with the first coming at the conclusion of the home opener. There’s an Asahi Night (May 13); Women’s in Sports Day featuring an appearance by broadcaster Hazel Mae (May 17); a South Asian Heritage Night (May 27); a Dog Day of Summer (June 10); a Marvel Superhero Day (June 28); and a Pride Night (July 22). There’s the standard slate of Family Fun Sundays and the Nooners at The Nat afternoon games.

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Bailey wouldn’t comment on how much the renovations are costing. The C’s are owned by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), a New York sports ownership and management group that bought the team from Vancouver businessmen Jake Kerr and Jeff Mooney in April 2023.

The city owns the Nat and Postmedia’s Dan Fumano reported in March 2024 that an internal memo from Vancouver park board general manager Steve Jackson to the city’s elected park commissioners in February explained that the upgrades would cost around $20 million and that DBH “has requested that the park board work collaboratively in developing a funding solution for the capital improvements, which could include seeking support from more senior levels of government.”

Questions to the park board about the upgrades been repeatedly directed to DBH, and DBH hasn’t responded to multiple inquiries about the Nat.

SEwen@postmedia.com

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