Baseball league asks Cactus Rats for ballpark update, sets Tuesday night deadline

The Energy City Cactus Rats will go in front of Western Canada Baseball League officials to present a plan for its new ballpark after years of delays.

Spruce Grove’s Energy City Cactus Rats are expected to give an update to the Western Canada Baseball League (WCBL) on its new ballpark that has been in a state of limbo.

Kevin Kvame, league CEO and president, told CTV News Edmonton they would be looking for a timeline on the ballpark’s completion to mitigate some of the “chaos” the WCBL has endured in regards to game scheduling.

“We’re not asking for the facility to be completely completed … everybody can see where we’re at with the facility,” said Kvame. “We’re excited to hopefully have games on the field as soon as possible.”

The Cactus Rats have had to postpone all of their home games so far this season. The City of Spruce Grove said the Myshak Metro Ballpark was given conditional occupancy following an inspection late last week.

The conditional occupancy allows for a maximum of 150 people, consisting of the team and support staff, to practice and host games without spectators.

“In order to achieve this, restricting access to the building was necessary to prevent individuals from roaming, fire services required that the site could safely accommodate their needs in the event of an emergency, and requirements were established to provide washrooms in a manner that did not require individuals to access the facility,” said the city in a statement Monday.

Portable toilets were installed and access to the portion of the building still under construction has been sequestered off.

Teams can only access the field and the dugouts and are not allowed to access the facility at any time.

The city said the baseball club is working through the requirements that would allow the ballpark to open to the public, permitting up to 1,500 spectators.

Construction of the ballpark has been met with several hurdles over the last three years that have stalled its opening.

“It’s been a long process through the development of the land, through partitioning it off, servicing it, water retention, bird migration,” said Kvame. “The patience ended with the board of governors last week when they said ‘enough’s enough.’

“We want to know what the plan is moving forward so our other 11 teams aren’t impacted by constant moving parts.”

The Cactus Rats have until Tuesday night to deliver an update to the board.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny