Council to consider options for Riverside Baseball Park
User group wants city to keep land, has committed $1.8M for improvements
Riverside Baseball would love to build a field of dreams, but city officials just want to sell the land in question.
A report going to council Monday recommends keeping the two existing diamonds at Riverside Baseball Park, but selling the property on either side for commercial and residential development.
Another option councillors will consider is removing the diamonds altogether and selling the 4.5 acres of land — including where the former Riverside Arena used to stand on Wyandotte Street East — possibly with an asking price of around $1.85 million.
But Bill Kell, chairman of the Save the Park Committee and past president of the Riverside Minor Baseball Association, said that would amount to a strikeout for many local baseball fans.
“We have big concerns,” Kell said Tuesday. “We don’t think any of those options will meet our purposes for rejuvenating the park.”
They envision improved facilities with an added Miracle Field — an accessible diamond with a rubberized surface — for players using wheelchairs and other such equipment.
Even better, said Kell, the Riverside Minor Baseball Association would raise the $1.6 million to $1.8 million necessary to build the Miracle Field. In fact, it has commitments of almost $500,000 already.
“It’s a needed facility,” Kell said, adding that it would match a similar diamond in Amherstburg. “Every child needs a place to play and that’s what we want to provide.”
Riverside Arena was closed after the WFCU Centre was built in 2008, in order to consolidate hockey and skating operations. The council of the day directed administration to look at selling some or all of the park property.
The report going to council Monday notes that if councillors decide
to sell the whole property, including the baseball park and the site of the former Concord School, the city does not have enough space to accommodate two diamonds together elsewhere.
“The two baseball diamonds in Riverside Baseball Park have a high level of use,” the report says. “In the event that council decides that the large and small baseball diamonds should be relocated onto other city-owned lands, the diamonds would need to be constructed on two separate sites as there is insufficient city-owned land to construct both diamonds on the same site.”
Riverside baseball also operates the Riverside Sports Centre — with batting cages and space for soccer, basketball and pickleball — just east of the property.
That facility helps support the 500 to 600 baseball players, aged four to 16, who play for Riverside every year — from house league to Triple-A.
Kell, who will attend Monday’s council meeting to pitch his group’s plans, said there is a strong commitment to baseball in the area.
“Baseball is still very popular,” he said. “Kids love it.”