A FRESH COAT of paint and brand-new facilities are coming to the nearly 20-year-old home of the Stockton Ports.
The Stockton City Council has unanimously approved approximately $6.1 million in renovations for Stockton Ballpark to comply with Major League Baseball standards for the upcoming season.
According to Tina McCarty, managing director of event and parking in Stockton, the renovations coming to Stockton Ballpark are necessary to maintain the Stockton Ports accreditation with the MLB.
“MLB came through, and they audited the amenities and spaces here in the ballpark, a lot of which is a backup house for player development, such as locker rooms and the areas that they’re going to be prior to taking the field,” McCarty said. “It came up with a numerical audit of where we were doing well and where we were deficient, and so this renovation is addressing all of those deficiencies.”
MLB’s audit found that the ballpark lacked necessary facilities such as “… female umpire/staff locker room facilities, independent team commissary spaces, larger pitching/batting tunnel, field lighting, and other team space needs.”
“MLB … came up with a numerical audit of where we were doing well and where we were deficient, and so this renovation is addressing all of those deficiencies.”
Tina McCarty, Stockton’s managing director of events and parking
MLB-affiliated teams are required by MLB to have certain amenities at the ballpark for its athletes and staff. Failure to comply with these standards would result in financial penalties for the city and potentially loss of the team’s accreditation.
Banner Island ballpark, originally constructed in 2005, has received some upgrades, such as a new scoreboard and technological improvements, but they are not enough to meet the current standards.
Changing to comply with MLB standards
McCarty says the standards required by the MLB have simply outgrown the size of some of the current player facilities at the ballpark, necessitating the renovation of some rooms alongside the construction of new annexes.
“While we checked the boxes of having all the spaces such as a coach’s room or offices. We have a coach’s office, but it no longer meets the square footage now required,” McCarty said. “So, when MLB came through (it) said no, you will have a training room or a one-on-one physical therapy room but now it has to have this in it and has to be this size.”
As a result, the city will pay approximately $6.1 million to improve the nearly 20-year-old ballpark. City officials plan to pay for the renovations using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the city’s general funds.
McCarty confirmed that the majority of the changes will be towards player development but the fans will also benefit from renovations.
Both home and visiting teams will benefit from refurbished locker rooms in addition to a new batting and pitching enclosure extending slightly into the parking lot on North Harrison Street.
The current batting tunnel inside the ballpark will be split in half with one side becoming a new shared weight room for players and the other becoming a new hospitality area for fans.
According to McCarty, the current batting tunnel is being repurposed as it can be updated to meet MLB standards due to its location in the ballpark and how shallow the current cage is.
Female coaches and umpires will finally be receiving a separate facility in the ballpark. During 2023, female staff had to use a repurposed public restroom as a temporary facility solution.
Fans will also benefit from the renovations as brand new seats will be installed, LED lighting to illuminate the field and a fresh coat of paint for the metallic structure of the ballpark. Concessions, catering and hospitality areas will also receive an update.
Securing a contractor for the job
According to the legislation text, the city of Stockton reached out to Haggerty Construction to carry out the renovations after the previous two bids for the project failed to acquire bidders.
The document noted that contractors were worried about executing the renovations with the ongoing Community Workforce Training Agreement (CWTA) negotiation renewal at the time.
According to McCarty, construction at the ballpark is expected to begin sometime in late January or early February, with work done in phases to avoid interruption to the Ports’ seasons in March.
“This is a project that is going to span 18 months so certainly the big lift and a lot of work will be done in the offseason,” McCarty said. “But as we continue to do some pieces of it we will do so but we will never interrupt the team’s ability to practice or play here.”
Aside from renovations, the city also approved a five-year contract extension to ASM Global to continue the maintenance and operation of the ballpark up until June 2031. The company has worked with the city of Stockton since 2011, receiving periodic extensions to their contract. Their current agreement with the company was set to expire on June 30, 2026.
General manager for ASM Global Stockton, Jason Perry, says that the city’s extension of its current management contract is a healthy sign for the city as it shows the quality of work in managing various facilities in Stockton.
“It continues to keep confidence, not only with our business partners, our all of our vendors, but as well as our staff management staff and our part-time staff that the city believes in the work that we have been tasked with on behalf of the city.”
ASM Global, which operates several entertainment venues and the marina in Stockton, will pay the city half a million dollars as an investment for ongoing repairs and replacement in the facilities they operate.
Perry acknowledges that although half a million dollars in repairs doesn’t go that far in terms of fixing big ticket repairs and improvements, it does help maintain the facilities across the city, much like home improvements.
“Roof repair, roof replacement, HVAC, the arena seating, anything that you can think of, it all falls into that bucket, and that $500,000 doesn’t go tremendously far, but it’s a step in the right direction as we work with the city on all capital improvement plans,” Perry said.
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.
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