The Town of Sylvan Lake, in partnership with the Hard 4 Sports & Entertainment Group and Western Canada Baseball League (WCBL) is excited to announce that a franchise expansion has been approved, and Sylvan Lake will be getting their own semi-professional baseball team. 

Sylvan Lake Mayor Sean McIntyre said this is an incredibly exciting time, as it was only a short time ago that the Town signed a memorandum of understanding with WCBL to bring a franchise to Sylvan, and now that decision is final.

“To have this caliber of facility and this caliber of sport to happen in community is very exciting for us and we can’t wait to see things progress,” McIntyre said. 

The team will be housed at Pogadl Park, located in the southwest corner of Sylvan Lake near Memorial Trail. The franchise is expected to be operational and part of the WCBL 2021 season.

The Town had originally planned a 400-foot diamond in Pogadl Park, but Hard 4 Sports & Entertainment stepped in and has raised the project to a multi-million dollar development that will include a space for the WCBL team, several slo-pitch diamonds, volleyball courts, new soccer fields and much more. 

McIntyre said the partnership with Hard 4 Sports & Development Ltd. is bringing an actual stadium with the capacity for nearly 2,000 seats to Sylvan Lake, elevating the potential for residents and guests to experience higher level sporting events. 

“It’s very exciting for us, especially when we have the types of partnerships that help youth in central Alberta take things one step further. That’s definitely reflected in this WCBL franchise opportunity, including the ability for sports groups in our community to rent that [stadium] facility when it’s not being used by the team.”

The development of Pogadl Park will happen in stages, the first being the groundwork of things like utilities and road infrastructure, which has now begun. 

Next, the slo-pitch diamonds will be built to help mitigate some of the challenges with the Town’s current diamond locations, which include being close to a roadway, home-runs entering yards, and the inability to expand. 

“We’ve been growing vastly in our population. We’ve been looking for ways to make sure our community facilities are keeping up with that growth. In 2017, we celebrated the opening of the Nexxsource Centre, and Pogdal Park is the next step in that legacy to allow for recreational facilities indoors and outdoors and in a multitude of sports,” McIntyre said. 

Kevin Kvame, President of the WCBL, said, “We are thrilled to have such a quality and dedicated group come forward and put a proposal before the League that really was an easy decision. They have a major population surrounding them that will appreciate the level of baseball coming to their area, as well as a large business base that can invest and partner with the new team in town.”

Sylvan Lake joins 2016 expansion teams Fort McMurray Giants and Brooks Bombers, as well as long-standing members from Alberta, the Lethbridge Bulls (1999), Medicine Hat Mavericks (2002), Okotoks Dawgs (2003), and Edmonton Prospects (2005). Teams in Saskatchewan include the Swift Current 57’s, Moose Jaw Miller Express, Weyburn Beavers, and Regina Red Sox. 

The Western Canadian Baseball League is a strictly-summer collegiate league featuring players from North American colleges/universities who showcase their talents for local communities in a 56 game schedule from late May to mid-August.